Hanoi (VNA)෴ - Experts have emphasised the urgent need to immediately restore the visa-free policy, which has been suspended since 2020, in order to lure more international holiday-makers when the country pilot welcoming foreign tourists back.

Solutions for full opening

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Vietnam exempted visas unilaterally for 13 countries and bilaterally for 88 countries and territories. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 since 2020 and the developments of the disease in other countries, the Government has decided to stop the visa exemption mechanism. When the Government officially allows the full opening of tourism activities from March 15, there is no reason to further delay the unilateral visa exemption policy, experts said. They proposed that the policy should be expanded to other key and potential tourism markets in order to lure tourists to Vietnam. Pham Ha, CEO of Lux Group, spotlighted the urgency to re-train human resources serving the tourism industry. “We cannot have good services without qualified and passionate human resources.” Ha said. He also stressed the need to define target tourism markets in order to design effective marketing strategies, suggesting the tourism promotion via digital platforms. Attention should be paid to organising tourism promotion and advertising activities both at home and abroad, thus widely popularising Vietnam's tourism and showing that Vietnam is a safe and friendly destination, experts noted. The Government; the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and relevant ministries and sectors should soon have specific official guidelines and unified mechanisms and policies so that tourism can bounce back as soon as possible, experts stressed. In its roadmap to revive “non-smoke” industry, Vietnam has implemented a pilot programme to welcome vaccinated foreign tourists from November 2021 to January 23, 2022. As a result, Vietnam welcomed about 9,000 international tourists since the programme was launched. Most of them came from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the UK, the US and Canada. Although the number is still modest, the pilot programme shows an optimistic signal for the tourism sector to soon return to normal from March 15, when the Government will full re-open tourism activities. Not only that, the pilot phase also left behind lessons to help the industry gain more experience and prepare solutions for a stronger new recovery. The pilot period has helped the sector learn from experience, thus making good preparations for stronger recovery in the time to come. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, during the pilot period, Khanh Hoa received the largest number of visitors with 7,000, followed by Phu Quoc with 1,282 and and Quang Nam with 239. As many as 16 travel firms, 82 lodging facilities, 28 tourist sites, eight shopping centres and 48 transportation companies in the five targeted localities have registered and been eligible to join the first phase of the programme. The first phase has been rolled out in line with COVID-19 prevention and control regulations, and received the warm response from holiday-makers, the ministry said. The ministry, therefore, has proposed implementing the second phase of the programme from now to March 30, conducting COVID-19 tests for tourists at their accommodations, and expanding tourist destinations. International tourism activities, including both inbound and outbound tours, should be fully resumed from March 31, the ministry said. The ministry suggested further negotiations with countries and territories for the recognition of Vietnam’s vaccine passport, and the use of a single application for COVID-19 prevention and control. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), international tourists had positive feedbacks on the quality of services, expressing their confidence in Vietnam’s measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensure safety for international tourists./.