Safe ‘cage book’

Coming up for the first long vacation after the third epidemic, everyone is talking about traveling.
It is easy to understand, because the third outbreak of COVID-19 broke out on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, many people had to stay at home, or even dare not go home. After Vietnam has curbed this epidemic, people feel secure to prepare to travel after a long series of “crazy legs”.

It can be said that the next ceremony of April 30 and May 1 will be the time of “slamming” for many Vietnamese. This is clearly shown through the numbers.

According to statistics of many major travel companies, the number of tourists booking tours has reached 50-60% and short-term tours still dominate with destinations such as Sa Pa, Ha Long, Phu Quoc, Da Nang, Da Lat, Con Dao …

Sa Pa Tourism Association said that since the beginning of April 2021, rooms at accommodation establishments for 4 days of 30/4 holidays and 1/5 in Sa Pa have reached about 80%. Many establishments run out of rooms completely on this occasion.

Similarly, Vietravel has sold about 80% of its tour plans for the holidays of April 30 and May 1.

The epidemic COVID-19 is being well controlled, so the tourist spots are almost overloaded on the weekends. Meanwhile, many resorts, homsestay, 3-4 star hotels in Da Lat, Vung Tau, Phan Thiet … announced their room out at the holidays of April 30 and May 1. The airlines also announced “burned” air tickets this holiday.

It can be said that April 30 and May 1 are the first long break, opening the domestic tourism summer and also a golden opportunity for the tourism industry to recover and take off after more than a year of hardships for COVID- 19.

In the summer of 2021, the golden time of domestic tourism is because Vietnam has well controlled the epidemic and the demand for tourism has been compressed for more than a year, waiting for a “boom” moment. If before COVID-19, the domestic tourism market had to share a lot of money to choose to travel abroad, now, this 90 million population market is almost a piece of domestic tourism.

Facing such a great opportunity, the domestic tourism industry needs to make the most of the new difficult opportunity to retain this large number of tourists in the long run. For a long time, some tourist resorts have been doing business in a “snatch” style, only worrying about the immediate benefits, worrying about withdrawing money from visitors without regard to service attitude and service quality. For a long time, a number of tourist spots that are used to welcoming Western tourists have a lot of money and have a “chaste” attitude towards domestic tourists.

If we keep the same way, it is difficult to take advantage and keep the upcoming golden opportunity. It should be understood that at least in the year period, the tourism industry will inevitably still have to rely largely on domestic tourists.

Whether the program “Vietnamese to travel to Vietnam” has been maintained for a long time, creating a habit for domestic tourists or not, it all depends on the stakeholders involved in the tourism industry. If not, as long as the pandemic ends in many countries, a large number of Vietnamese tourists will pull suitcases to travel abroad. There are places where the natural scenery cannot be as beautiful as Vietnam, but the travel service is sure to satisfy them more.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese tourism industry still has to find ways to welcome international tourists while ensuring not to “catch” even the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Countries that depend on tourism have many good ways such as travel corridors, flexible isolation, vaccine passports …

Thailand and Indonesia both give priority to the COVID-19 vaccination for people in the two tourist islands Phuket and Bali, aiming to open to international visitors soon this July. Indonesia will prepare a tourist corridor, establish a “green zone” in Bali for tourists to come and stay, considering a direct flight connecting Bali with well-controlled countries. Meanwhile, the tourism industry in Phuket wants to inject the majority of the island’s population to welcome all international tourists who have vaccinated. Visitors will not have to quarantine or go anywhere as long as they do not leave the island within a week.

Tourism bubbles have been formed as between Taiwan (China) and Palau, Australia and Singapore …

The European Union (EU) member countries have agreed to formally implement the ‘vaccine passport’ initiative towards reopening the tourism industry in the summer of 2021.

In Vietnam, Da Nang is the leading city in this regard. The city tourism industry has selected about 10 leading travel companies to prepare for the welcome guests when the policy of “vaccine passport” from the government.

Facing a precious golden opportunity, the Vietnamese tourism industry is both happy and worried. Glad for the opportunity to revive, worried about how to perform the dual task: well serving the sudden increase in tourists; ensure disease prevention.

Because just one case of COVID-19 in the community in a certain tourist city is a golden opportunity to slip out of hand again, as happened in Danang last year.