Travel

While 22 percent of the survey respondents hoped their business would recover by the end of this year, the remaining 22 percent did not make any prediction.

The survey was done recently by Vietnam’s Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) that polled 432 travel companies in the country.

It also found that 79 percent of the respondents have cut their staff to reduce costs while 73 percent have restructured their customer base.

Most of the firms (99 percent) wanted the government to prioritize Covid-19 vaccination for tourism workers while 88 percent wanted tax cuts.

The survey showed that as of March this year, 39 percent of workers in the tourism sector had been unable to resume work, while 61 percent had returned to work with reduced salary and working hours.

Vietnam earned tourism revenues of VND312.2 trillion ($13.5 billion) in 2020, down 56 percent year-on-year. A total of 3.83 million foreign tourists visited the country, a 76 percent drop, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

The Vietnamese government closed national borders and canceled all international flights on March 25. It has since allowed only Vietnamese repatriates and foreign experts and highly-skilled workers.

While the country has gone for over a month without community transmissions, the government is calling for greater vigilance against Covid-19 amid intensified outbreaks with new variants in neighboring countries like Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

During the holiday (April 30-May 3), 21 airports managed by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) accommodated 11,000 flights, an increase of 45 percent against 2019’s same period.

The country’s largest airport Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City reported the highest number of passengers on a single day in history on April 29, a day before the holiday.

Vietnamese celebrated the Reunification Day (April 30) and Labor Day (May 1) and many left one day earlier for popular tourist destinations or returned home for family reunions.

Earlier, domestic air carriers Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways had opened new air routes to cater to growing travel demand after the country went over one month without community transmissions.

Vietnam has been dealing with a surge in community transmissions since April 29. Since then, 37 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, 36 of them related to people who had completed the 14-day centralized quarantine. The other is a man in Da Nang whose transmission source is yet to be identified.

Huge crowds flocked to local tourist hotspots during the holiday despite the resurgence of Covid-19.

Airlines and travel companies are heavily reliant on the boom in domestic tourism to mitigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which broke out in Vietnam in January last year.

Lao Cai, home to famous highlands town Sa Pa, received 64,000 visitors during the national holiday (April 30-May 3), four times higher than the same period last year, provincial data shows. The northern province raked in VND208 billion ($9.03 million) in tourism revenue during the time.

Also in the north, Ninh Binh, with UNESCO heritage site Trang An Landscape Complex, welcomed over 65,000 visitors, up 47.5 percent, earning VND120 billion.

Kien Giang authorities said the Mekong Delta province’s Phu Quoc Island received over 91,000 visitors, three times higher than last year’s same period, and tourism revenues of VND101.2 billion.

Phu Quoc, dubbed ‘pearl island’, has become a top tourist destination after it built an international airport in 2012 and the government rolled out a 30-day visa-free policy for foreigners in 2014.

Thom Islet in Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island off the southern coast. Photo by VnExpress/Khanh Tran.

Da Lat, a popular resort town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, received over 145,000 visitors, up 180 percent. Many of its downtown streets were jammed last weekend by holiday crowds. Da Lat was the most sought for holiday destination by Vietnamese travelers during the national holiday, according to Booking.com, the world’s biggest accommodation website.

In the central region, Da Nang, home to long, sandy beaches such as My Khe, welcomed 75,000 tourists, 10 times higher year-on-year.

Last year, the holiday to celebrate the Reunification Day (April 30) and Labor Day (May 1) saw Vietnam’s top tourist destinations just reopening after weeks of nationwide social distancing.

The extension, to take effect from Friday, will apply to visitors arriving from all countries and territories, except Australia, Brunei, mainland China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, The Strait Times newspaper reported.

Travelers from Vietnam will have the option of staying the last seven days at their places of residence.

The stay-home notice, issued under the Infectious Diseases Act, requires travelers to remain in their place of residence or dedicated facility for a stipulated period.

Singapore’s Ministry of Health said all visitors will undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on arrival, the 14th day and before the end of the quarantine period.

Travelers from Vietnam had earlier been allowed to opt out of dedicated facilities and serve their 14-day stay-home notice period at their place of residence.

Singapore has recently been struggling with new community transmissions as the pandemic situation worsened in Asian countries. It has recorded over 61,000 infections and 31 deaths so far.

Vietnam has reported 38 cases since April 29, when the latest wave began.

The Vietnamese government said Tuesday that people who have completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine and tested negative twice would not be let go immediately, but did not specify the duration of further stay.

The latest outbreak in Vietnam began when a Ha Nam Province man who arrived from Japan tested positive a few days after being released from his 14-day centralized quarantine and testing negative twice while there.

Another tourism company named TST also said that travelers often canceled the Northern and Central trips.

On the same day, the Municipal Department of Tourism sent an official instruction letter to districts, heads of tourism destinations to strictly comply with the Covid-19 control and prevention regulations of the Ministry of Health.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of HCMC Department of Tourism said that the agency required the staff at tourism destinations to follow the Covid-19 control and prevention regulations as well as to establish the Covid-19 prevention and control teams at the entertainment places. In particular, it is recommended to regularly use loudspeakers to remind guests and staff of tourist sites to strictly comply with the 5K regulation, including khau trang (face mask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration), spraying Cloramin B inside the campus, tourist sites four times a week.

By Thi Hong – Translated by Huyen Huong