Tourism post covid crisis

The aerial view of Hạ Long Bay in Quảng Ninh Province. It is re-opened to tourists from within the province since March 2, together with other provincial renowned destinations. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

QUẢNG NINH — Popular destinations in Quảng Ninh re-opened to tourists from within the province yesterday as the area has recorded no community transmission of COVID-19 in 20 days.

However, Quảng Ninh is not ready to receive tourists from other provinces yet.

The provincial Party Committee asked tourism businesses and tourist sites to develop a process for receiving tourists to ensure safety during the pandemic, strictly complying with the instructions of the Ministry of Health as well as disease prevention measures.

Specifically, Hạ Long City is required to strictly control the tourism activities on Hạ Long Bay. Meanwhile, other localities and institutes must monitor their destinations, especially where spiritual activities take place, to limit gatherings.

According to local authorities, Quảng Ninh will continue to apply appropriate measures to strictly control people returning and coming from pandemic-hit areas throughout the country to ensure safety.

For people coming or returning from areas with no new cases of COVID-19, they only need to fill in medical declarations.

The province also strictly controls the vehicles transporting goods in and out of the province and requires the implementation of pandemic control measures.

Localities including Hạ Long, Uông Bí, Đông Triều, Cẩm Phả and Quảng Yên need to proactively apply appropriate and necessary measures to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in preventing and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vân Đồn International Airport will resume operations today and Quảng Ninh Province is urgently building a new anti-pandemic process to ensure safety for the airport, airport staff and the community.

According to the Secretary of the Quảng Ninh Provincial Party Committee, the province still has COVID-19 patients that are under treatment and isolation. Therefore, the province is not qualified to serve quarantine of cases from outside the province, including Vietnamese citizens, foreign engineers, workers and experts who enter Việt Nam via Vân Đồn airport.

In terms of the normalisation of economic and social activities, including those related to business and services that are operated under certain conditions such as karaoke parlours or bars, Quảng Ninh has assigned local police to research and propose the plan and appropriate time of their reoperation. — VNS

The clip introduces viewers to stunning scenery from famous destinations such as Tam Chuc Pagoda, the Trang An Tourism Complex, Hue Citadel, and the Golden Bridge in Ba Na Hills, among others.

It also brings a warm and touching atmosphere of reunion during the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, featuring traditional cultural activities such as calligraphy, flower orchards in full bloom, and bustling markets.

The growing interest shows the appeal of YouTube in promoting the beauty of Vietnam .

It is also consistent with the tourism sector’s orientation towards increasing the promotion of Vietnamese tourism on digital platforms, thereby inspiring tourists in the context of tourism activities being seriously hit by COVID-19./.

The prime minister made the request at the government’s regular meeting on March 2.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the meeting

According to the government leader, to date, localities have basically controlled Covid-19, except for Kim Thanh District in the northern province of Hai Duong.

He noted that Covid-19 vaccines for people and applying Covid-19 prevention regulations were Vietnam’s best measures in the fight against the virus. The Ministry of Health needed to quickly deploy the vaccination programme in line with newly-issued resolution. The work needs to be started this week.

Under the government’s resolution on the purchase and use of Covid-19 vaccines, Vietnam has planned to provide around 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine for local people free of charge this year. The vaccines are sourced through purchase, imports and aid.

The vaccines will be prioritised to medical workers; people in the anti-pandemic efforts (Covid-19 prevention and control steering committees of all levels, quarantine facility staff, reporters); diplomats, customs officers and people working entry and exit procedures; military personnel; public security forces; teachers; those aged above 65; essential workers (aviation, transport, tourism staff, utility workers, etc.); people with chronic health problems; people who want to study or work overseas; and people in virus-hit regions.

Dropping seven places since 2019, Viet Nam comes in at #25 while Thailand, Philippines and Indone sia are amongst the top 20 economies globally offering the most supportive entrepreneurial conditions for women.— Infographic by Mastercard

Women across the world have been disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic – a staggering 87 per cent of women business owners say they have been adversely affected, according to Mastercard’s report of the Women Entrepreneurs Index 2020.

Overrepresentation in sectors hardest hit by the economic downturn (such as tourism, retail and F&B), the pronounced digital gender gap in an increasingly virtual world, and the mounting pressures of childcare responsibilities are only a few factors that have left women particularly vulnerable, particularly in economies such as Viet Nam, South Korea and Thailand.

MIWE 2020’s top performing economy is a prime example of gender-specific support mechanisms having swift and significant results. For the first time, Israel tops the MIWE as best economy for women entrepreneurs worldwide, advancing from 4th place in 2019. With an ambition to double the number of female entrepreneurs within two years, Israel’s success has been driven by a focused institutional backing for SMEs – its ‘Support for SMEs’ ranking catapulted from 42nd place in 2019, to 1st in 2020.

Last year’s strong performers, the United States and New Zealand – although dropping from 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to 4th places respectively – demonstrate that economies with mature gender focused initiatives still out-perform on the global stage through continued focus on advancing conditions for women in business. In both these economies, favourable cultural perceptions of entrepreneurism, the high visibility of female leaders that serve as role models for aspiring entrepreneurs and supportive entrepreneurial conditions play a crucial role in their success.

It is noteworthy that the majority of economies (34 out of a total of 58 in this report) have healthy MIWE scores of 60 to 70 such as Australia, Indonesia, Mainland China, Singapore, Viet Nam (63.87) and Malaysia while 13 economies have lower scores of 50 to 60 such as Japan and India.

Of the 58 markets included in the Index, 12 moved up by five or more ranks year-on-year, while 10 fell by five or more. Asia Pacific’s fast-rising markets include Mainland China (+6) and Indonesia (+5) while the largest drops were seen in Singapore (-12), Philippines (-10), Hong Kong SAR (-8) and Viet Nam (-7).

Women in Asia Pacific continue to make admirable progress in the business world. The Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, and New Zealand ranked at #2, #6, #9 and #10 respectively for “Women’s Advancement Outcomes” which measures progress and degree of marginalisation economically and professionally as businesses leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs and labour force participants.

“What the findings make clear is that regardless of an economy’s wealth, level of development, size, and geographic location, gender inequalities continue to persist – even pre-pandemic. What COVID-19 did is that it exacerbated an already problematic situation. It disproportionately disrupted women’s lives and livelihoods to a greater extent than men due to a few pre-existing factors: the jobs and sectors women tend to work in, childcare and domestic responsibilities and the pre-existing gender disparity in business,” said Julienne Loh, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

“Yet, through the pandemic we’ve seen women’s strength and endurance in the face of adversity. If anything, this year has illuminated how vast women’s potential really is. But this moment in time is fragile unless governments, financial services and business organisations come together to do three things: offer systemic support and programmes to enable women to survive and thrive in this new normal, equip them with skills to navigate the digital world, and nurture an equitable, accessible financial services system that supports women’s work and entrepreneurship. These are not easy to deliver, but investments like these can yield priceless dividends for not only women, but society as a whole,” said Loh. — VNS