Foreign tourists visit the Independence Palace in HCM City on August 8. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Strict visa policies and a shortage of human resources and infrastructure in the tourism sector have stymied recovery of the travel industry, and the target of five million international arrivals this year could be out of reach, industry players have warned. Domestic travel has seen a strong rebound whereas international tourism, with a target of five million arrivals this year, remains in a slump, said Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association. Domestic visitor numbers topped 71.1 million in just the first seven months of this year against a full-year target of 60 million, he said. In the same period there were only 733,000 international visitors, or 8% of pre-pandemic numbers, he told a two-day programme titled ‘Lien Ket Suc Manh Du Lich Vietnam Nam 2022’ (Power of Vietnam Tourism Linkages) that ended in Ho Chi Minh City on August 9. Though … [Read more...] about Vietnam mulls ways to boost inbound travel
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Vietnam facilitates travel of Vietnamese, foreign citizens
Tourists in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working with domestic ministries, agencies and foreign partners to facilitate travel of Vietnamese and foreign citizens, said Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang . At the ministry’s regular press conference in Hanoi on August 11, Hang said amid the complicated and uncertain developments of the COVID-19 pandemic with new, more virulent and transmissible variants as well as the emergence of new epidemics like monkeypox, several countries are yet to open their doors and continue limiting travel, some of which are major tourism markets of Vietnam. As the global economy continues to struggle from the pandemic, international tourism has not yet fully recovered, and Vietnam is not an exception. Following the Prime Minister’s directions to accelerate the tourism recovery in the new situation, Hang said Vietnam has promoted the mutual recognition of 'vaccine passports' and the … [Read more...] about Vietnam facilitates travel of Vietnamese, foreign citizens
Vietnam has 4th highest number of weekly Covid cases worldwide: WHO
Vietnam has been recording over 571,000 new Covid-19 cases a week on average, which is only behind South Korea (713,000 cases), the U.S. (760,000 cases) and Japan (1.4 million cases), according to a World Health Organization report. But the report did not mention Vietnam among countries with top Covid deaths. The WHO said the high numbers of recorded cases in Vietnam were partly because of extra data provided by certain localities, which were recorded since February. Over the past week, the northern port city of Hai Phong added another 402,830 cases to its tally and the northern province of Thai Nguyen added another 152,485 cases, the Ministry of Health said. Vietnam records around 2,000 new Covid-19 cases a day on average over the past week, the ministry added. There has been a spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases as reported on Thursday, with 6,775 new cases, which is three times that of the average number of new cases recorded in the previous week, the ministry said. … [Read more...] about Vietnam has 4th highest number of weekly Covid cases worldwide: WHO