Tourists scarce as travel bubbles fail to inflate all over

The Changi Airport in Singapore. Hong Kong and Singapore have been struggling to stand up a quarantine-free travel arrangement for six months. - The Straits Times/ANN

SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON, May 29 (AFP): Quarantine-free travel bubbles were hailed as tourism's "godsend" earlier this year, but cancellations and suspensions have deflated hopes they will herald a return to pre-pandemic normality.

Perhaps the world's most high-profile bubble opened between Australia and New Zealand on April 19, leading to emotional scenes as families split when borders closed almost 400 days earlier were reunited.