Tourism board proposes complete opening of market from May 1

The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB), the Private Sector Development Committee (Committee IV) and the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) Alliance have proposed that the Government remove all domestic and international travel restrictions and completely reopen the tourism market from May 1.

In a recent letter sent to the Prime Minister, the eighth that the TAB has sent to the Government leader since COVID-19 broke out in Vietnam, the three agencies explained that they choose the date to give enough time for travel firms, hotels and airlines to make necessary preparations and for localities to complete the vaccination of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines to local residents.

They stressed the need for all central agencies to work closely together to design necessary mechanisms and procedures to implement the plan, suggesting the expansion of visa exemption for visitors from all targeted tourism markets and countries with strong investment in Vietnam.

In the letter, the three offices highlighted the Government’s success in making Vietnam one of the six countries with the highest COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the world, as well as efforts by ministries and sectors in reopening the country through pilot programmes to receive international tourists and resume a number of regular international air routes which is expected to help many travel firms survive.

They stressed that it’s time to define the time to return to the new normal situation. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to hold a conference on January 24 with the participation of representatives of six ministries and 20 localities and well as major travel firms to discuss the complete open of the tourism market on the April 30-May 1 holidays in a safe manner. After two months of implementing the pilot scheme to welcome foreign visitors, the tourism sector has served nearly 8,000 with high safety level