(TITC) - Authorized by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on September 14, Vice Chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu lead Vietnam delegation jointed 54th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and 33rd Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and Commission for South Asia.
These meetings were organized virtually to prepare for 24th section of the General Assembly (30 November – 3 December, Morocco).
Vice Chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu lead Vietnam delegation. Photo: TITC
At 54th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific (54th CAP), Vietnam and other members of CAP joined electronic voting to statutory organs and their subsidiary bodies: Vice-President of the General Assembly (Campuchia), Member of the Credentials Committee (Samoa), Chair of the Commission for East Asia and the Pacific (Malaysia), Vice-Chairs of the Commission for East Asia and the Pacific (Japan and Fiji). These candidates will be voted on 24th section of the General Assembly.
Members of CAP also selected Indonesia as the host country for the celebration of World Tourism Day 2022.
At 33rd Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and Commission for South Asia (33rd CAP-CSA), reports of the Secretary-General, Technical Assistance Projects, Regional Activities Results of the Survey on Members’ priorities for the General Programme of Work and Budget for the period 2022-2023 were presented.
The participants also shared the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry and recovery measures to respond to the pandemic.
54th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Tran Phu Cuong, Head of International Department (VNAT) informed that like other countries in the region, due to the impact of COVID-19 and its variants, international tourism in Viet Nam has been interrupted since 2020. Nevertheless, Vietnam are still running campaigns for domestic tourism while implementing safety guidelines for tourism labours and tourists to prevent the spread of the pandemic. In the first 8 months of 2021, Vietnam has served 30 million domestic tourists, total tourism receipts were about 6 billion US dollars.
Besides the strategies to foster the tourism recovery which was applied since 2020, recently Vietnam Government has approved additional supports measures for tourism enterprises and workforces, namely financial supports for tour guides who were impacted by the pandemic, 80% reduction in deposit for travel service business until the end of 2023. Some other stimulus programmes were also implemented, such as the launching of the travel app “Vietnam Safe Travel”, the establishment of Vietnam page “Wonders of Vietnam” on Google Arts and Culture platform, tourism campaign “Vietmam: Go for Love” featuring promotional videos by influencers, etc.
Vietnam has started the vaccination programme in March 2021. The tourism workforce is categorised as one of the essential services and is prioritised for vaccination. The vaccination rollout is now being speed-up, which open a bright outlook for international tourism to be re-open in Vietnam by the end of this year.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Vietnam has proposed and was accepted by the Government to pilot re-opening the international tourism in Phu Quoc island, an attractive and signature leisure destination in Vietnam. The Ministry is in close cooperation with local authorities and related sectors to conduct the pilot plan, as well as to research the potential of the “vaccine passport” with some appropriate countries and territories. The Ministry will also coordinate with local agencies and the Ministry of Health to promote the vaccination rollout for tourism labours and citizens in Phu Quoc island before the re-open pilot, expect to start in October 2021.
With the challenges in the upcoming recovery period, Vietnam tourism expects to receive continuous supports from UNWTO to revitalise and develop tourism to be more resilient, especially through UNWTO initiatives, technical supports and training programmes.
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