Following two years of being heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, full tourism activities were reopened for Vietnam in the new normal. In order to gain solid results, the localities’ authorities and enterprises have made careful preparations, in terms of scenarios and procedures for welcoming visitors, as well as infrastructure, human resources and the quality of products to serve tourists.
The 'Sapa in the Clouds' Festival in Lao Cai province (Photo: Quoc Hong)
To prepare for the tourism recovery, the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee issued the Plan No.43/KH-UBND, on recovering and developing the capital’s tourism, in the safe and flexible adaptation and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the 2022-2023 period. Accordingly, the city will welcome tourists following two phases.
Ensuring flexibility but safety
During the first and second quarter of this year, the city has been considering the domestic tourist market as the main driving force for recovery, while exploiting the international tourist market under the Government's roadmap. The first phase focuses on exploiting the market from countries in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, and then visitors from other key tourism markets. From the second quarter of 2022, the city will restore all tourism activities and products in a safe adaptation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vice Chairman of Hanoi municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen, requested that all activities to welcome and serve tourists must comply with epidemic prevention and control regulations and criteria, under the guidance of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Hanoi municipal People’s Committee.
Hanoi welcomed 800,000 domestic tourists in February, triple compared to the same period in 2021 and equal to 80% of February in 2020. This is an encouraging number because the act of welcoming tourists were only recovered since mid-February. All destinations around the city have prepared careful measures in epidemic prevention and control.
In order to realise the goal of early tourism recovery, Quang Ninh province has drastically and persistently prevented and controlled the COVID-19 pandemic, under the motto of being active and proactive, beginning from grassroots and improving medical capacities from the provincial to grassroots levels. The province achieved the highest and earliest COVID-19 vaccine coverage rate, with over 99 percent of the first and second injections for people aged 12 years and above, and 96 percent of the adult population having received booster shots.
Director of Quang Ninh provincial Department of Tourism Pham Ngoc Thuy, said the tourism sector completed the project of "Green channel tourism" and submitted it to the provincial People’s Committee, while strengthening the communication work, so that visitors can feel secure when traveling to safe and attractive destinations. Currently, more than 600 tourism and service establishments in Quang Ninh are labeled as safe for COVID-19 prevention and control, nearly 1,500 accommodation establishments have registered for COVID-19 safety assessment, via the safe tourism database system (safe.tourism.com.vn) that is operated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In addition, the province piloted closed tourism models to welcome international visitors.
Lao Cai province has also opened tourism in an open and flexible manner, especially for tourists from Sapa National Tourist Area. According to Hoang Thi Vuong, head of the culture and information department of Sapa town, as soon as the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has an agreement consent, the international travel agencies can bring tourists to the locality.
The local authorities just need to check the procedures and papers of the delegations, through the travel agencies to monitor the groups’ activities during their tour in Sapa. Three training courses on ensuring epidemic prevention and control were held for accommodation establishments in Sapa town, Lao Cai city and Bac Ha district. In addition, guidelines on measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 if travellers are infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus.
To support employees and employers to recover following the pandemic, Ninh Binh provincial tourism sector decided to reduce 50 percent of the assessment fee for a travel business license, 80 percent of the deposit for travel service business, until the end of 2023, and provided relief aid for 103 guides affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the high vaccination coverage, Ninh Binh issued a tourism recovery plan, allowing tourist sites and destinations to open from February 1. Ninh Binh provincial Department of Tourism issued a set of 30 tourism criteria, encouraging travel businesses to exploit digital platforms and social networks, to promote and organise weekly online tours.
Passengers from Singapore arrive at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi on the first day of fully tourism reopening. (Photo: Vu Diep)
Diversifying tourism products
In addition to measures to ensure visitors’ safety, the localities have proactively created new tourism products. Since February, Hoa Lo Prison Relic Site’s management board has sold tours for two-night tourism products.
The tours for the recent weekend sold out very quicky. Head of the management board of the relic site Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, said the cadres were trained with epidemic prevention measures to serve tourists. The agency has been developing another night tour, which is expected to make its debut in July, while preparing the construction of a special tour for foreigners.
Many businesses have actively exploited new forms of tourism. For example, VietFoot Travel carried out cycling tours to four sacred temples, worshiping the Gods who guard the four main posts of the citadel in the north, south, east and west in Hanoi, Bat Trang ancient village, as well as opened tours connecting Ninh Binh and Quang Ninh. Meanwhile, AZA Travel company launched a tour to Duong Lam ancient village, with many new attractive experiences.
Quang Ninh province plans to organise dozens of tourism stimulus events, activities, and programmes in 2022, including the programme “Safe Quang Ninh – great experience”, the 2022 Quang Ninh Culture and Tourism Day in Hanoi, Ha Long Carnival, Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional long dress) Festival and the 9th National Sports Games.
The province has been focusing on building its tourism products and brands, and developing tourism products towards each district, town and city, which have unique and attractive tourism products. In order to attract international tourists, tourism service providers have been cooperating together to build new products with high spending levels, such as the experience of international standard golf courses and many 5-star resorts.
Director of Lao Cai provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ha Van Thang, said that the province has refreshed tourism products, directing visitors to experience products according to the trend of safety, ecology and community tourism. Various activities will be held this year, including the festival themed “Essence of the Northwest – flavour of Lao Cai province”, Lao Cai international tourism fair and Lao Cai tourism promotion conference.
Defining Sa Pa as an attractive destination that can attract a large number of international and domestic tourists, the priority will be given to the organisation of the 2022 Sa Pa Festival, with 31 cultural, sports and tourism events. In addition, the locality has also developed more new experience tourism products, such as the contest to conquer Ngu Chi Son peak, a tourism programme exploring terraced fields, two trekking routes along the Muong Hoa valley and forming tourist attractions on agriculture, medicinal herbs and health rehabilitation.
Tourism businesses in Ninh Binh province are focusing on developing new tourism products in line with the locality’s advantages, as well as experiential tourism activities and night tours in Hoa Lu and Trang An ancient towns. The green tourism products are also being promoted. The province has been mobilising resources to invest in infrastructure and forming Trang An and Kenh Ga-Van Trinh tourist areas. Ninh Binh’s tourism sector strives to gain 8 trillion VND in tourism revenue by 2025.
