Many airlines, travel agencies and hotels have just signed a letter of petition to the government to announce in February about the time to fully open tourism.
The petition proposed on January 26, was made by airlines including Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel, Saigontourist, Sun Group, Thien Minh Group... and the Private Economic Development Research Board ( committee IV). The airlines asked the government to announce in early February the time to fully reopen to tourism.
Businesses and Board IV proposed the Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Health to coordinate with ministries and sectors in promulgating the process of welcoming international guests, in the direction of removing isolation regulations, health monitoring at residence, Only require travelers to have 2 doses of Covid-19 vaccine and have a negative test result for nCoV 72 hours before the flight.
International tourists come to Khanh Hoa at the end of 2021 in the pilot phase. Photo: Xuan Ngoc
The proposal to open up all international tourism has received support from ministries, localities and businesses in a discussion this week. The recommended time to fully reopen is the end of March, the end of April or even February. Businesses expect the announcement to be done soon to have time to promote, prepare to welcome guests, and take advantage of the company. "Golden Time".
"The announcement of Vietnam's opening will be an opportunity to create a breakthrough for the tourism industry with countries in the region, and at the same time open up investment and trade flows from other countries," the petition reads. .
Opening up tourism is also the only opportunity to "save" businesses with 2.5 million direct workers and millions of indirect workers, the representatives of the above businesses said.
Mr. Nguyen Vu Hoang, Director of Marketing and Communication Department of Vietravel Airlines, said that currently, up to half of the total aviation personnel are working in other jobs to earn a living, and this situation may lead to a shortage of personnel in the airline industry. future.
Vietnam stopped welcoming international visitors from March 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic. Since the pilot reopening in November last year, the whole country has welcomed more than 8,500 guests, mainly from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Singapore, UK, USA, Canada... Of these, up to half. are overseas Vietnamese returning to their homeland.
In 2021, Vietnam's tourism will serve about 40 million domestic tourists, more than 8,500 international tourists, total revenue of 180 trillion VND, less than a quarter of 2019.
In the region, some countries eagerly opened the door to welcome visitors. From February 1, Thailand reopened the Test&Go program, without requiring quarantine regulations for travelers in any country. Travelers must be tested for Covid by PCR-RT and stay at approved hotels for 5 days.
From the beginning of January, Laos welcomes guests from 31 countries and territories to green areas. Visitors are required to go on a tour, have a negative result for nCoV 72 hours before departure and as soon as they arrive in Laos.