Move over, backpackers

Indonesia, New Zealand and Thailand are ditching budget travellers in favour of the super-rich, says Emma Featherstone

Private islands are not the only places to which society’s wealthiest have been escaping while the world has remained closed to others. Some destinations have been seeking to court high-net-worth visitors and, in some cases, effectively to snub the budget traveller. If you are a member of the one per cent, or even a one percent holiday budget, you could benefit from the schemes that countries have cooked up to lure you to their shores.

The push against mass tourism in favour of a “premium” market began pre-Covid. Tourist taxes were introduced as an answer – in part – to overtourism. Take Bhutan, which, since 2012, has set a daily visitor fee. The nightly charge of up to $250 (£183) per person in March-May and Sept-Nov was partly designed to ward off an influx of young and generally impecunious gap-year travellers.

However, the pandemic has allowed destinations time to test out new entry stipulations. Are people willing to pay for a stint in self-isolation if their reward is white sand beaches? Might they cough up their bank statements to a foreign government to secure a long-term stay on a paradise isle? The answer – as pandemic tourism experiments have revealed – is often yes.

Backpacker favourite Bali may be the next to trial this theory, having reopened to some international visitors this week. Reports about the Indonesian government aiming for “quality tourism” following its reopening has caused some consternation.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s maritime and investment coordinator minister, reportedly told a press conference in September: “We will aim for quality tourism in Bali, so we won’t allow backpackers to enter once the reopening plan for international travellers is officially put in place in the near future.” These words were later played down as a “misunderstanding”, although Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, minister of tourism and creative economy, confirmed to Telegraph Travel that the Indonesian government will indeed be looking more closely at the spending power of visitors.

New Zealand has also made a push towards reframing its image. Stuart Nash, the country’s tourism minister, told a travel industry conference in 2020 that the downturn following

Covid would encourage a pivot towards “high-net-worth individuals”. The target tourist, it was suggested, flies “business class or premium economy, hires a helicopter around Franz Josef [Glacier] and eats at a top-end restaurant”.

The country has also launched a Premium Partnerships Programme, which offers financial rewards for tour companies which attract millionaire visitors. To be considered for this scheme, firms must target travellers with assets of at least US$1 million.

Thailand is another stop on the preCovid gap-year trail, which until November 1 (when the country is set to welcome immunised Britons), is off lim

its to those without a thick cushion of cash. The country launched its Sandbox scheme in July, which currently allows fully-vaccinated visitors from low to medium-risk countries to enter Phuket, Krabi, Phang-Nga and Surat Thani. Holidaymakers are required to stay in an approved hotel and take two PCR tests during their stay, but after seven days they are free to travel to other parts of Thailand. Despite the requirements, the scheme attracted over 24,000 international arrivals in its first eight weeks (before Thailand was later added to the red list). So the red-list cull may see Brits once again booking trips to Thailand and beyond – no matter how much they cost.

Can you afford to go? The gap-year trail is under threat as countries target the wealthy