On 15 March, Vietnam officially opened all border gates, by sea, by rail, and by air and also restored its visa policies to the same pre-pandemic days, so as to allow all international and domestic tourism activities to resume once again. However, plans will still take some time to revive and for new expectations to be met.
Clear bottlenecks
The Covid-19 prevention and control measures of strict social distancing and lengthy quarantine periods have now been relaxed by the Ministry of Health. As of 15 March, these bottlenecks will be eased to allow the tourism industry to fully reopen their doors and resume activities as before. This move has been welcomed by all tourism companies, as they begin preparations to welcome international guests in the coming months. From now on there will be no requirement for travellers to undergo a re-test for the virus or to quarantine after entry. Visitors don’t need to show a certificate for vaccination against Covid-19 or show they have recovered after being infected in the last six months.
Visitors now only need to show a negative test result before departure by air within 72 hours under the RT-PCR/RT-LAMP method, or within 24 hours under the rapid test method. People entering by land, sea or rail must all follow similar regulations. In case the test results are not available, testing for SARS-CoV-2 will be carried out at the border gate before entry. If the test results are negative, visitors will be allowed to enter and participate in tourism activities, but if the test results are positive, they will have to follow the instructions of the relevant health authorities.
Children under two years of age are not required to be tested for SARS-CoV-2, and even if they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 or have never been infected with SARS-CoV-2, they will be allowed to enter and participate in activities outside of place of residence with their parents and relatives. All tourists must make a medical declaration before entry and use the Medical Declaration Application (PC-COVID), while also taking appropriate measures to prevent and control the pandemic as prescribed for the duration of their stay in Vietnam.
Soon after the Ministry of Health issued their latest guidelines, a number of travel businesses also updated their travel information for their customers and partners. On 16 March, it was seen that on the flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, new entry regulations had been applied. There is now more positive information coming forth from the tourism industry. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said that the number of international visitors searching for information on Vietnam has been increasing sharply since the beginning of 2022.
According to analytical data from the Google Destination Insights Tool, which tracks travel trends, the volume of search began to increase from the beginning of December 2021 and skyrocketed from the end of December 2021 to the beginning of January this year. The search volume as of 1 January 2022 was up by 222% from the previous month, and 248% from the same period in 2021. In particular, from the beginning of January until now, the international search volume for Vietnam has always remained at a very high level. Even on 21 January, it increased by 425%, and on 3 February, it increased by 374% compared to the same period in 2021.
Ambitious campaign
Despite the very high enthusiasm, the questions being considered by many in the tourism industry are directed towards the target markets, effective marketing campaigns and the efforts needed to reach the ambitious target of five million visitors in 2022.
At a conference to discuss the reopening of tourism activities under safe yet flexible conditions in the current pandemic conditions, Mr. Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Prime Minister, emphasized that by just reopening tourism we cannot have a flood of visitors right away, and tourism recovery will take a concerted effort over many months. Many businesses believe that in order to receive many visitors, they must step up tourism promotion campaigns and increase advertising. Promotion campaigns have for long been a weakness of the Vietnam tourism industry. We are currently implementing the "Live fully in Vietnam" communication campaign, but we still have to wait to see how effective it will prove to be.
The reopening of tourism after a long gap also means tougher competition with other countries in attracting visitors. If the promotion campaigns are not effective, the recovery phase will become much more difficult, and reaching out to the target market will become a strain. Looking back at the golden age of Vietnam's tourism industry in 2019, the largest number of international visitors came from the four main markets of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, accounting for about 60% of the total number of visitors to Vietnam. Among these, most visitors were from China. Currently, China continues to implement its Zero Covid policy, hence it will be quite difficult to reach out to this market.
Among the remaining three markets, Japan has not been very receptive to opening up tourism markets and travel routes. South Korea has taken steps to remove social distancing rules for travellers and shortening quarantine periods for people who have been fully vaccinated. However, with the pandemic cases still arising the tourism industry may not receive many visitors from this market this year. As regards Taiwan, there does not seem much enthusiasm from this market either.
Mr. Vu Tien Dung, Director of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, said that Taiwan currently has strict pandemic prevention measures in place, and people entering the country must be isolated for ten days, with a further seven days under self-check. Hence, when Vietnam opens for international tourists, initially there will be no visitors from Taiwan.
Even though the four main tourism markets for Vietnam have opened the doors the current Russia-Ukraine war crisis is bound to affect several key localities such as Khanh Hoa and Phan Thiet, which earlier were inundated with Russian tourists. On the other hand, the travel demand of Americans has increased both at home and abroad. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung, Ambassador of Vietnam to the US, said that after two long years of travel restrictions, the US tourism market is once again beginning to revive.
According to a study by the Destination Analysis Company, 80% of Americans have made travel plans for the next six months. American tourists have always considered Vietnam as an attractive tourist destination because of its beautiful and serene landscape, history, culture, and exotic cuisine. Unfortunately, with a current rise in the number of Covid cases, the US CDC has also just upgraded the pandemic level for travel to Vietnam to level 4 and has advised US citizens against travel to Vietnam.
