Vietnam received only 0.5 percent of travelers from Spain in 2019, although the number of visitors has increased in recent years.

Localities need to reopen soon to receive travelers from other provinces but they need to develop consistent regulations.

The Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years is not just a crisis in which the domestic tourism industry can be revived simply by reducing prices or stimulating demand like previous times. 

Tens of localities have announced their opening to travelers, commencing from October but others are still quiet. This has caused concern among travel firms as it is still difficult to organize tours.

Luxury travel, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions), community-based tourism and staycations are the four segments that Vietnam’s tourism industry can focus on in the post-Covid period, experts say.

Domestic tourism in the new conditions where people ‘live together with Covid-19’ will require travel firms playing the pioneering role and local authorities encouraging people to travel in safe tours.

Some destinations are ready to reopen to receive travelers, while travel firms are preparing to serve domestic travelers with green cards.

Despite possessing an abundance of fine and rare natural resources, the Central Highlands region is still considered a ‘sleeping giant’

Experts believe that Vietnam should reopen the domestic aviation and tourism market with vaccine passports as the number of people who have received two doses of the vaccine is increasing.

Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, hotel owners have been forced to put their properties up for sale at much lower prices, providing opportunities for investors who were betting on the tourism recovery when the virus was brought under control.

The tourism industry has become paralyzed and many eateries have shut down because of Covid-19. This has adversely affected the consumption of drinks, especially alcoholic drinks.

The gradual opening of international routes and the pilot opening of some tourist sites for foreign tourists are among important solutions in efforts to save the aviation, tourism, hotel and service industries.

In the current context, the hotel-hospital model helps authorities to reduce the pressure on hospital beds, and private hospitals can join hands with the health sector to participate in the fight against the epidemic.

The Covid-19 outbreaks have hit the tourism industry especially hard. Travel firms are looking forward to the new vaccine passport, which they believe could save the industry.

Tour guides are subject to the Government’s VND26 trillion support package which aims to help Covid-19-hit businesses and people. However, unclear requirements have may have caused the package to be inaccessible to thousands of tour guides.

For over the past year, one of the largest 5-star hotels in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province, has been used as a quarantine site for visitors who enter Vietnam by air. 

A vaccine passport is a new concept mentioned by many countries to open borders.

Hanoi is striving for over 15 million domestic tourists in 2021, equal to 70 percent of that in 2019 and but two times higher than that in 2020, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

Dire statistics for the first half of 2021 point to tens of thousands of tourism businesses in Vietnam facing the risk of permanent closure if the sector does not receive timely financial support policies.

Vietnam recorded over 88,200 international visitors in the first half of 2021, plunging 97.6 percent year on year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said on June 29.