key for tourism throughout pandemic

A vaccination record is a new concept mentioned by many countries to open borders.

The widespread use of Covid-19 vaccines will help restore confidence among tourists, help ease travel restrictions and gradually normalize tourism activities.

30 years backwards

International visitors to Vietnam in 2020 are estimated at 3,837 million, 78.7% less than last year.

In the January 2021 report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the global tourism industry experienced its biggest crisis in history in 2020 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, with international tourist arrivals falling by 73.9% compared to 2019 Number decrease from 30 years ago.

Accordingly, the number of international tourists reached only 381 million arrivals in 2020, 73.9% less than in 2019, which corresponds to over 1 billion arrivals. The main reason was the sharp drop in travel demand and global travel restrictions in response to the epidemic. This reduction lies between scenario 2 (-70%) and scenario 3 (-78%), which was forecast by the UNWTO in May 2020.

The decline in international arrivals resulted in a loss of approximately $ 1.3 trillion in international tourism exports, 11 times the loss during the Great Depression in 2009. In terms of tourism’s direct contribution to GDP, caused the pandemic Loss of about $ 2 trillion, which is more than 2% of total global GDP.

According to the General Statistics Office, international visitors to Vietnam reached 3,837 million in 2020, 78.7% less than the previous year. No fewer than 4,734 companies in the tourism, hotel, transportation, travel services and others sectors have ceased operations and 1,296 companies have completed dissolution proceedings. The pandemic could result in the loss of 100-120 million direct jobs in the tourism industry. Many of them are small and medium-sized companies.

There are figures that are not included in the official statistics: 95% of the 2,667 international travel agencies had to cease operations last year; 30,000 accommodation establishments with a total of 650,000 rooms, of which only 20-25% are booked. Thousands of hotels and accommodation establishments had to close, hundreds of accommodation establishments were offered for sale.

More than 17,650 international guides were almost unemployed; Almost 8,800 local guides and more than 1,000 local guides were either wholly or partially unemployed.

Almost 2 million direct and indirect jobs in the tourism industry have been affected by job losses, layoffs or lost income.

Vaccines and the prospect of reopening tourism

According to UNWTO, international tourism experts believe that widespread vaccination will help restore tourist confidence and help ease travel restrictions, gradually normalizing tourism activities. The recovery of tourism in 2021 will depend on the speed of vaccination, coordination between countries on travel procedures and the economic situation.

The vaccination certificate is a new concept that many countries are talking about when opening their borders.

This problem depends on government disease control and the resilience of the population to the Ncovi-2 virus. Developed countries around the world are now relying on community-based vaccines to open up their economies (including tourism). Some countries with suitable environmental conditions like Vietnam have focused on zoning, blockades, isolation, social distancing, tracing, prediction and treatment to eradicate the epidemic.

Experts assume that Vietnam cannot gradually open up until June 2022.

If much of the world’s population is vaccinated by the summer of 2021, the recovery of international tourism can accelerate in the second half of 2021. In any case, experts also assume that travel between neighboring countries and within the region will recover more quickly, while long-distance travel will take a long time. However, opening up international trade is not possible under the current conditions. Thailand had to stop the process of opening the door to international tourists with the STV 90-day visa program. The tourism bubble between New Zealand and Australia has also failed after outbreaks of disease re-emerged in those countries.

Experts also stressed that while success in disease control and vaccination will positively contribute to the safe recovery of tourism, in the short term, closer coordination between nations on travel procedures, health and safety testing, vaccine certification, and reliable data availability and effective communication.

There are different opinions from experts about the outlook for 2021: 45% of the experts say the outlook for 2021 will be better, 25% are unsure about the recovery and 30% say that 2021 will be more difficult than 2020. 67% of the experts believe that vaccination will accelerate the recovery of international travel, while around 30% see it as a possibility.

But when will Vietnam be able to secure a sufficient number of vaccinated people to open the door to welcoming foreign tourists if it has to import vaccines? The government’s plan is to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of 2021 to achieve herd immunity. Thus Vietnam will not be able to gradually open up and normalize international trade until June 2022, if at the same time the disease control situation in other countries of the world also achieves positive results thanks to ongoing vaccination programs.

Nguyen Duc Chi

“We’ll lose another tourist season if we don’t change”

In recent conversations with VietnamNet, Dr. Nguyen Duc Kien, head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Group, said the pandemic fight and mass media communications need to be adapted to support economic development.

Vaccination certificate could help save tourism

Large-scale Covid-19 vaccinations are expected to help restore travelers’ confidence, ease travel restrictions and normalize tourism activities.