The country is entering the peak summer travel season but visitors prioritize choosing outbound tours due to the significant increase in the price of domestic trips.
Domestic tourism is strongly bouncing back, recording more than 100 million visitors so far this year, higher than all forecasts and up 1.5 times compared to the yearly target of 60 million.
The number of international tourists to Vietnam in December 2021 rose by 14.2 percent compared to that of the previous month as the country is piloting the welcome of foreign visitors and international commercial flights are being resumed.
The loss to international tourism in Vietnam has been phenomenal in the last two years, with the Covid-19 pandemic causing all international flights to be grounded.
A program on tourism recovery nationwide and overcoming Covid-19 consequences has been launched with an aim to flexibly adapt to the pandemic for safe tourism activities, heading to the recovery of the sector amid the pandemic.
The domestic market is now regarded as the primary driver for the recovery of Vietnam’s tourism industry from the crushing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vietnam has not yet opened its doors for international visitors, however, domestic tourism could possibly salvage the flagging tourism industry with attractive packages and discount fares during the coming summer months.
As international tourism has not been resumed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, domestic tourism promotion is considered as the sole solution to gradually recover the tourism industry at the moment, said director of HCMC Department of Tourism Bui Ta Hoang Vu in Can Tho City on July 4.