Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, VNAT’s Chairman speaking at the meeting (Photo: TITC)

Attending the press conference were Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Mr. Nguyen Le Phuc, Mr. Pham Van Thuy, VNAT’s Vice Chairmen, leaders of departments and units under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

In 2021, Vietnam’s tourism industry welcomed 40 million domestic visitors and since the end of November 2021, implementing the Pilot plan to welcome international tourists, so far, it has attracted over 10,000 international visitor arrivals to Vietnam. Especially with the wave of tourism recovery, during the Lunar New Year of Tiger holiday, the tourism industry welcomed and served 6.1 million visitor arrivals, exceeding the number of visitors in December 2021. In the first 2 months of 2022, the total number of domestic visitors reached 17.6 million visitor arrivals; total tourism receipts was estimated at VND41.38 trillion, increased by 313% over the same period in 2021. In February 2022, the number of domestic visitors reached 9.6 million visitor arrivals, increased by 380%, in which more than 6 million overnight visitor arrivals. In the context of the pandemic, the increasing number of domestic visitors is an affirmation of the correct implementation of safe tourism activities in the previous time and the readiness to reopen international tourism in the present stage.

The soaring number of international search volume for information about Vietnam's tourism from the beginning of 2022 is showing a positive sign for the process of opening to international tourism. The analytical data from Google Destination Insights (Monitor the travel trends) shows that the number of international search volume for air and accommodation from the beginning of December 2021, have been increasing gradually, till the end of December 2021 and beginning of January 2022 rose steeply (the number of search volume on 1st January 2022 increased by 222% compared to last month and increased 248% compared to the same period of 2021). From January 2022 to present, the number of search volumes for airlines to Vietnam have remained in an upward trend, sometimes peaking by 425% compared to the same period of 2021, as of 3rd February, an increase of 374% over the same period in 2021.

Implementing the Resolution No. 128/NQ-CP of the Government on provisional regulations “Adapting safely, flexibly and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic effectively”, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) proposed the Plan for resuming tourism activities, ensuring safety and efficiency under the new normal from 15th March 2022.

Accordingly, international tourism activities (inbound and outbound) are required to comply with regulations on immigration, health and related regulations of Vietnam and other countries and territories, travelling via air, road, sea and railways ensuring safety, in accordance with regulations on prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic, applicable to all categories of visitors, especially all international tourist markets that meet conditions on immigration and medical safety are eligible to enter Vietnam.

In order to resume tourism activities safely, timely and effectively under the direction of the Government, the MOCST has directed the departments of state management of tourism in provinces and cities to advice the People’s Committees of province/city to promulgate plans to open tourism in accordance with the current situation of the localities; implementing the Programme “Safe Tourism - Full Experience” to launch domestic tourism in adapting safely, flexibly and effectively controlling the COVID-19 pandemic; promulgating stimulation policies to attract tourists such as reducing ticket prices, offering more services for tourists to experience, etc; directing businesses in the area to actively develop plans to resume tourism activities, including plans for pandemic prevention and control according to regulations.

Implementing the media campaign “Live fully in Vietnam”. The campaign is and will be implemented synchronously on digital platforms such as the website https://vietnam.travel, https://vietnamtourism.gov.vn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tiktok; the social networks of VNAT, on international media channels, via Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, etc. After more than three months of implementation, the campaign made an impression with a beautiful video depicting the brilliant, lively and attentive tourism services in Vietnam, touching the hearts of viewers, inspiring and making visitors eager to “live fully” in Vietnam.

Overview of the meeting (Photo: TITC)

Regarding the tourism human resources for the reopening period, the MOCST will propose to the Government and ask localities to have mechanisms and policies to support and encourage experienced tourism human resources to return to the industry, at the same time, ask tourism businesses to actively review, recruit and train human resources to ensure service quality and meet the market demands. In the long term, the MOCST will continue to have a policy on human resources development to ensure sufficient scale, suitable structure, high quality and professional expertise in foreign languages to meet the requirements of international integration and enhance the competitiveness of the tourism industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proved the importance and benefits of digital transformation for the tourism industry. The MOCST will keep researching and improving the efficiency of technology applications serving tourists, businesses and localities. In particular, will step-up the registration and safe declaration of COVID-19 from tourism business establishments in accordance with regulations and encourage tourists to use the application “Vietnam Safe Travel” to assist in ensuring safe travel; increasing the application of supporting technology to improve the experience of tourists.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, VNAT’s Chairman also informed that right this morning (15th March), the Government issued Resolution 32/NQ-CP on visa exemption for citizens of 13 countries to enter Vietnam regardless of passport types and entry purposes from 15th March 2022. This is one of the timely policies of the Government to support the recovery of the Vietnam tourism industry, creating a great momentum for the reopening international tourism roadmap.

In the upcoming time, VNAT, the MOCST will pay close attention to uphold the promotion for Vietnam tourism “Live fully in Vietnam” to international tourists, propagating by the support of Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad, on international medias, participating in domestic and international tourism events and fairs.

Simultaneously, coordinating with ministries, branches and localities in implementing solutions to ensure safety for tourism activities; creating favourable conditions for entry and exit; improving the efficiency of air connection; improving product quality, competitiveness of destinations in Vietnam.

The entire industry will put every effort to achieve the goal of attracting 5 million international visitor arrivals, 60 million domestic visitor arrivals and the total tourism receipts will reach about VND400 trillion in 2022.

Tourism Information Technology Center