Explore Asia Virtually With These Digital Travel Experiences

Travel restrictions, border closures, vaccine requirements, and a rapidly changing situation all make travelling during the pandemic difficult, to say the least. Many avid travellers, both in Asia and beyond, have been forced to put their passports in a drawer and pack away their luggage. And it’s still unclear when those of us with wanderlust can resume our old activities with the same freedoms we enjoyed before. Conservative estimates state that travel and tourism, to many nations, maybe back to near-normal within a few years. Less optimistic commentators note that it could be a decade or even longer.

Speaking to CNN, the founder of 10xTravel, Bryce Conway, said: “There are some destinations that travellers can still book a long-haul flight right now if they wanted to. For example, there are flights open to US passengers to destinations like Albania and many parts of the Caribbean. But I don’t expect the volume of long-haul routes to increase to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2022.”

Despite the uncertainty (and the dust gathering on our passports) some rather innovative travel experiences are still available, albeit online in the digital sphere. With that in mind, here are a few ways to explore Asia virtually with starlink internet in 2021.

Stream Asian travel programs

If you’ve exhausted all the travel content on your local TV channel’s on-demand viewing options, and you’ve seen every travel show Netflix ever made, it’s time to expand your viewing horizons and “travel” via your streaming accounts.

For this, you’ll need a high-quality Virtual Private Network (VPN), or you can take advantage of a free VPN trial. Once you have your VPN sorted, you can use it to mask your IP address and thus your device’s true physical location. Select a server in any Asian nation, then open your streaming account, such as Netflix. You’ll notice a whole new load of content to explore and enjoy, including new local travel shows.

Delve into Asian art on Google Arts & Culture

It might be the baddie of the tech world, but Google has given us a few things to be grateful for, including its Arts & Culture platform. While certain elements have come under fire for prejudiced practices, most notably its fine art doppelganger feature, the platform has done an excellent job of covering the best of the world’s art and artistic pursuits in a virtual format. In conjunction with oodles of museums worldwide, the platform allows you to browse masterpieces, read about art, and delve into long-form analyses.

Hire a local guide for a private city tour

According to the World Bank, tourism accounts for nearly 15 percent of Thailand’s GDP. And it’s not only the economy suffering — travel and tour guides have all lost a significant portion of their income, if not all of it. Elsewhere in Asia, the figures are similar with so-called developing nations feeling the brunt of the pandemic the most.

Thankfully, travellers can help by supporting local guides and getting a fun experience. Through platforms such as Urban Adventures, you can book an affordable “trip” and help travel professionals make ends meet.

Hopefully, these ideas have got your fingertips roaming over the keyboard in search of virtual travel. It might be a while before we can grab our bags, but at least technology is helping to fill the gap.