Visitors take hop-on hop-off bus tour in HCMC.
Many foreign partners express interest in Vietnam’s plan for reopening tourism
All hotels, resorts and restaurants of Saigontourist Group in HCMC, provinces and cities throughout the country are ready to welcome back foreign tourists. Tour guides who have experience of providing international trips to visitors have also been already. Besides, the company has received many calls from partners to ask for information of the detailed reopening plan, said General Director of Saigontourist Group, Nguyen Huu Y Yen.
According to Marketing Director of TST Tourist Company Nguyen Minh Man, it’s not just about the reopening of all tourism activities that always receive visitors immediately. Therefore tour guides of international tours will temporarily serve domestic travelers.
Travel companies, such as Saigontourist, Vietravel, TSTtourist have received a lot of interest from their partners from European countries, Dubai, US, Japan, and South Korea. However, it is expected to take three-six months to offer services to international visitors; as well as wait for relevant ministries, departments and agencies to complete the plan for reopening and recovery of tourism and create favorable conditions for enterprises to resume operation recover visa exemptions, commercial flights and issue instructions for health quarantine.
Ensuring safety, practice of pandemic prevention
HCMC’s tourism focuses on strengthening promotional programs presenting destinations, attractions, food and culture, the land and people of the city on local and foreign social media sites. The city expects to receive about 3.5 million international tourists in 2022. The HCMC Department of Tourism has proposed the municipal People’s Committee to issue special mechanisms for attracting foreign visitors, said Director of the Department of Tourism of the city Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa.
The HCMC Department of Tourism on March 14 continued to negotiate with the functional agencies to exploit a helicopter sightseeing tour in the city. The service’s cost estimate is US$10,000 per hour and VND20 million per person with this 45-minute scenic helicopter ride.
Marketing Director of TST Tourist Company Nguyen Minh Man, highly appreciated new tourist products of Thu Duc City and districts in HCMC, including the launch of tours using eco-friendly vehicles.
HCMC plans to organize a series of activities welcoming back international visitors, including Ao Dai Festival that has been kicked off in March to open the “Welcome to HCMC” program.
Removing obstacles to resume tourism activities
Foreign visitors participate in a tour operated by Saigontourist Group.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism to coordinate with relevant ministries, departments and agencies to promptly complete the plan for reopening and recovery of tourism and remove obstacles to resume tourism activities in the context of safe, flexible adaptation to and effective control of the Covid-19 pandemic; implement missions and solutions in the Vietnam tourism development strategy by 2030.
Head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Nguyen Trung Khanh said that the unit is building plans to welcome back foreign tourists and create advantages to both domestic and international visitors. The VNAT has coordinated with the localities to check the upgrade of tourism facilities and services, organize training courses and apply supporting policies to attract employees.
On the other hand, the VNAT has also continued to promote the “Live Fully in Vietnam” campaign to welcome international tourists back to five destinations in the country, including the northern province of Quang Ninh, the three central localities of Quang Nam province, Da Nang city, and Khanh Hoa province's Nha Trang city and Phu Quoc island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang; and take part in tourism fairs in Northeast Asia, Europe and Russia.
Ministry of Health proposes government to further relax entry rules
According to the latest draft proposal from the Ministry of Health, air passengers to have proof of negative SARS-CoV-2 tests using RT-PCR/RT-LAMP method within 72 hours prior to departure, or 24 hours with rapid antigen tests, with the results approved by the countries where the tests are conducted. Children under two years old are exempt from this testing rule. Entrants needn’t to take another Covid-19 test and still comply with pandemic prevention and control measures that are applicable to people living in Vietnam.
People entering Vietnam via other routes that have negative test results for Covid-19 must implement pandemic prevention and control measures that are also similar to entrants by air. If they haven’t had negative test result for Covid-19 at the time of entry, they will need to get a test within 24 hours of entry (either RT-PCR/RT-LAMP or rapid antigen tests).
