TOURISM READY TO OPEN THE DOOR
The Government has recently decided to fully reopen the tourism sector beginning March 15. Reopening tourism is a decision welcomed by many agencies and localities due to the tourism sector’s heavy losses over the past two years.
Under the local tourism development program for 20222026, Vietnam is expected to welcome some 18 million international tourist arrivals and 85 million domestic tourists by 2026. The figures remain the same as those in 2019, as the impact of Covid-19 may set the sector back seven years.
Tourism reopening
The Government has agreed to fully reopen the tourism sector beginning March 15, following a proposal by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and other ministries and agencies.
Accordingly, the Government Office issued an announcement on Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam’s conclusions on the reopening of tourism. Deputy PM Dam asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate with other ministries and agencies to work out regulations to welcome foreign visitors.
The ministry was also told to quickly announce a detailed tourism reopening plan that localities and the relevant units can implement. Tourists to Vietnam do not need to register for tours; they will only need to comply with the Ministry of Health’s regulations on the Covid vaccination.
In addition, they must have a negative test result taken within 72 hours before departure if they undergo an RT-PCR test, and 24 hours before departure if they undergo rapid tests. Foreign tourists must install at least one medical control app, as required by Vietnam, and activate it during their stay in the country. They must also be covered with Covid travel insurance.
In addition, international guests entering Vietnam through airports must undergo quick Covid-19 tests at the airports if they show symptoms, while immigrants will undergo Covid tests at border gates. International visitors arriving in Vietnam by air will isolate themselves in their hotels or lodging facilities for one day and continue monitoring their health for 14 days.
From March 15, restrictions on the issuance of visas will also be removed, while policies on e-visas and visa waivers will be resumed, as in the pre-pandemic period. Before the pandemic, Vietnam exempted visas unilaterally for citizens from 13 countries, and bilaterally for people from 88 countries and territories. It could take many years to get back on track.
Many operators in the sector were cautious in their forecasts about when the sector could return to prepandemic levels, although they said there have been optimistic signals of the recovery of domestic tourism, and the international travel segment could resume in the upcoming period.
Meanwhile, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung has submitted the program on developing Vietnam’s tourism in the 20222026 period to the prime minister. The program comprises two phases. From 2022 to 2023, the sector is expected to attract some 8-9 million international tourist arrivals, equivalent to 45-50 percent of the figure in 2019, and 65-70 million domestic arrivals, or 75-80 percent of the 2019 figure. Total travel revenue will reach an estimated VND400-450 trillion, or 50 percent of the prepandemic figure.
In 2022 and 2023, the sector will focus on supporting tourism enterprises and those participating in offering travel services, to facilitate the sector’s recovery, in addition to developing new travel products that ensure Covid safety and meet the market demand during and after the pandemic.
Additionally, the sector will ramp up tourism promotion events in key markets, both at home and abroad, conduct pilot programs to welcome back international travelers with Covid vaccine passports, and develop tourism human resources.
In the second phase from 2024 to 2026, the sector is set to serve some 16 million international tourist arrivals and around 80 million domestic tourists by 2025, with revenue expected to reach VND780 trillion. By 2026, the country is expected to welcome approximately 18 million international tourists and some 85 million domestic tourists, earning total revenue of some VND900 trillion. With these targets, the volume of international visitors to Vietnam by 2026 will be equivalent to the 2019 figure, while the expected revenue would reach VND45-145 trillion higher than the 2019 level.
To reach the targets, the sector plans to focus on developing mainstream travel products that are branded, have high quality and competitiveness, as well as distinct products of each locality and region.
In addition, the sector will prioritize investments in traffic and technical infrastructure in national tourism areas, continue to call on investment for the development of travel services and facilities to form world-class tourism clusters, bolster digital transformation, and speed up tourism cooperation and promotion.
Before this Tet holiday, many en
trepreneurs in the industry told The Saigon Times that it was difficult to determine an accurate forecast about the sector’s recovery. However, among the three segments, including domestic, inbound and outbound travel, domestic tourism could bounce back faster and stronger. Tran Doan The Duy, general director of Vietravel, told The Saigon Times before Tet that, “If the local market keeps growing like this, we expect to recover the domestic tourism this summer.”
A few days later, the local tourism market showed more robust growth. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the sector recorded VND25 trillion in revenue during the nine-day Tet holiday from January 29 to February 6. The total number of travelers during that period reached 6.1 million arrivals, with 3.2 million staying overnight at lodging facilities.
Other tourism operators expressed their concern over another possible outbreak of Covid after Tet. If new cases hike after the holiday, some localities could reintroduce strict antivirus measures that could hamper the growth of the tourism sector. As for outbound tours, it is more difficult to forecast when the segment will recover. Theoretically, Vietnamese people can now travel to many places worldwide. However, many obstacles remain in place.
Many travel firms have yet to organize outbound tours, as some destinations have still put tourists under quarantine and air routes to these destinations have yet to be reopened, in addition to obstacles in applying for visas.
According to Tran Trong Kien, chairman of Thien Minh Group, it is not easy to predict how the tourism sector would recover, although the international tourism segment has been reopened. Many markets remain shut, still, Vietnam’s tourism sector can expect to welcome a high number of visitors from Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States only.
However, the country must develop medical control policies, equivalent to those in the above-mentioned markets.
Searches for Vietnam’ aviation, tourism surge
The Tourism Information Center under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has cited statistics from Google Destination Insights to state that since early January, the volume of searches for Vietnam’s aviation has surged, sometimes by 425 percent over the same period last year.
Skyscanner, a subsidiary of Trip. com Group, has also announced that the number of international guests booking flights to ASEAN countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, increased sharply last month. In addition, the number of passengers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany buying air tickets to ASEAN last month rose 19 to 300 percent month-on-month. Searches for Vietnam’s tourism also surged between the end of December last year and early last month. On January 1, these searches rocketed 222 percent over the previous month, and 248 percent versus the year-ago period. The largest numbers by countries searching for Vietnam’s tourism included the United States, Australia, Russia, France, Singapore, India, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Meanwhile, the 10 destinations in Vietnam which were searched the most were HCMC, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Phan Thiet, Danang, Hoi An, Dalat, Quy Nhon and Vung Tau. Similarly, searches for lodging facilities in Vietnam have also surged since early December last year, and jumped 86 percent this month.
These figures showed that the demand for information about Vietnam’s tourism and aviation sectors is high. Therefore, there is no reason to delay the tourism reopening.