As Macau heads into another lockdown with casinos defunct through July 18, Cambodia is showing resilience and the country is already lifting additional travel restrictions on unvaccinated arrivals. Starting today, Cambodia will no longer expect unvaccinated tourists and visitors to the country to self-quarantine in hotels but still have to show a rapid-antigen test when they arrive.

Unvaccinated Travelers Can Now Enter Cambodia Easier

RATs are generally the least invasive and somewhat least accurate tests, but they are all that will be needed from travelers at least for the time being. The measures were announced by the Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng last Friday and they are going to significantly change the pace and dynamic of traveling to the Southeast Asia country.

The announcement comes at a point when Macau is struggling to contain its worst outbreak of COVID-19 cases, too, meaning that it’s highly possible for Cambodia to continue to siphon off tourists from the special administrative region. Commenting on the new measures, Heng said:

Unvaccinated travelers who enter the country by air, land or water no longer need to undergo the seven-day quarantine anymore, but they will be subjected to a mandatory rapid test upon arrival by health workers on standby at the entry points.

All travelers who test negative will be granted admittance while those who test positive will have to either quarantine or leave the country, returning home. Cambodia has been fairly lax with its travel restrictions, first dropping all COVID-19-related measures for vaccinated travelers in March.

Some Rough Edges to Iron Out Still

Investor interest is also returning with more casino investments relying on better tourism numbers. Now, the country feels confident that new arrivals who are not vaccinated may still be granted entry to the country, nevertheless. Despite the tourist influx, Cambodia has struggled to reopen its border casinos, citing manpower shortages as the main reason for this development.