Now, tourism products are being prepared and promoted by several enterprises for end of the year holiday season and coming New Year. Many attractive programs are being planned in keeping with the trend towards safer tourism.
Adapt and innovate
Since the end of October, many localities and travel agencies have simultaneously launched attractive tourism products with safety as their main criteria to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel businesses say that most of the domestic tours and routes have now been restored. Mr. Vu The Binh, standing Vice Chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA), said that this is a very appropriate time to stimulate tourism and promote safe tourism products. For many businesses, promoting Tet tourism products is not only a way to rejuvenate the market, but also a way for tourists to gradually adapt to the new circumstances.
According to Mr. Phung Quang Thang, Chairman of the Hanoi Travel Association, and Director of Hanoi Tourist Travel Company, with the presence of many F0 cases in the community, safe green tourism will be the main focus. Therefore, it is necessary to have a close connection between localities and tourism businesses in order to provide timely information such as on policies, destinations, and safety services, for tourism activities to take place efficiently and safely. Under the new normal conditions, visitors will travel in small groups, and spend time participating in activities related to physical and mental health. In addition to traditional products, this year's Tet tourism programs also have many new products offered in links between localities and travel agencies.
These products can be seen in programs such as those developed by the VGreen Sustainable Tourism Club that is deploying a self-driving caravan to explore the Northwest, while the VietFoot Travel Company is offering a bicycle experience with a journey to discover Hanoi and the localities of Ninh Binh and Hoa Binh during the year-end holiday season.
The Hanoi Tourist Travel Company, in collaboration with the National Museum of History, has launched a walking tour named "French architecture in the heart of Hanoi", while VITA office has organised an interesting program called "Green connection to Vietnam tourism". This program will help visitors satisfy their need to enjoy a vacation with a variety of activities and rich experiences in the midst of nature. High-class resorts and hotels actively offer attractive programs to welcome the coming New Year, such as all in one packages that fully integrate many experiences. Among those that are attracting tourists are the Flamingo Dai Lai Resort and Flamingo Cat Ba, both offering a festive experience.
Domestic tourism is forecast to continue to grow with many products and destinations close to nature, offering traveling in groups with a small number of six to eight guests to ensure safety. After starting from Hanoi, visitors can go to Ha Giang to see buckwheat flowers, or go to Sapa to participate in winter activities, along with other destinations such as Moc Chau, Dien Bien, Cao Bang, and Ha Long Bay. In the Central and Central Highland regions, there are beautiful locations such as Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, Da Lat, Dak Lak, and Gia Lai. When traveling from Ho Chi Minh City, visitors have a choice of inner-city destinations such as Can Gio, Cu Chi, and inter-provincial destinations like Vung Tau, Tay Ninh, My Tho, and Ca Mau provinces.
Safe experience
On 16 December, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced a program to launch domestic tourism with adaptable plans for safe, flexible, and effective travel under the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the program aims to restore tourism as per the route from the inner provinces for the domestic market, for sightseeing, tourism, and relaxation. The program also introduces and promotes diverse and attractive tourist destinations, products, and experiences, and ensures safety against pandemic while also restoring confidence in the domestic market.
There are guides to pick up and serve tourists safely, and welcome tourists according to each level of pandemic in the area, with corresponding measures to ensure disease safety. Tourism enterprises are all responsible for developing and introducing related package incentives, commit to quality, and develop new products, services, and programs for new destinations.
For the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the task is to announce the launch of an attractive and safe tourism program named, "Safe Tourism-Full Experience", besides also coordinating with localities to organize tourism activities and events to restart inter-provincial and inter-regional tourism in a safe and flexible manner. Connecting destinations, associations, businesses, and airlines to build attractive product packages to attract domestic tourists is now the main goal.
In November, Resolution 155/NQ-CP of the Government, called for continually promoting domestic and international tourism activities with disease safety measures. In this task, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to take on the prime responsibility and coordinate with agencies and localities in taking measures to promote domestic tourism with disease safety measures, especially during Christmas, New Year, and Lunar New Year.
The Government plans to expand international tourism, directing it gradually to target audiences, markets and destinations. The programs have all to be well planned to cover all eventualities of the Covid-19 pandemic, and are under preliminary review and assessment to develop for 2022. Information that Vietnam will restore a number of international commercial routes from 1 January 2022, has opened up new opportunities for tour operators. This can be considered a good time to warm up the domestic and international tourism market after a long period of hibernation.
