Bars, clubs in HCM City allowed to reopen

The HCM City People’s Committee has allowed bars and dance clubs that were closed late last month due to the second COVID-19 outbreak to resume operations from Monday (September 7).

Bars and dance clubs are required to follow safety and prevention protocols against COVID-19, including ramping up sanitization efforts and training employees about prevention measures issued by health authorities.

Events with large gatherings such as festivals, fairs, investment promotion conferences and workshops are permitted with proper infection prevention and control measures in place, including wearing face masks, disinfecting hands, filling in health declarations, checking body temperature and practicing social distancing.

The city authorities shut down entertainment services and limited large gatherings on July 31 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after the second outbreak that broke out in the central region.

Tourism recovery

The Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is drawing up a recovery plan for the “new normal” after the second outbreak eases.

Tourists at the peak of Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh Province. VNS Photo Thu Hang

The administration is consulting travel and tourism businesses and is completing the plan as quickly as possible, said Nguyen Trung Khanh, general director of VNAT.

The domestic tourism stimulus programme will resume to boost local travel demand.

Expatriates living in Vietnam and foreign visitors entering Vietnam on some commercial flights that may be allowed to resume are also potential tourists for the tourism stimulus programme, he said.

Many new travel products and initiatives are being considered in the tourism recovery plans.

Travel firms said that it was vital to restore traveller confidence and demand with domestic promotions to prepare for the year-end travel season.

Nguyen Quoc Ky, general director of Vietravel, said the key to rebuilding demand for travel would be to restore traveller confidence with safe travel and destination campaigns.

Tourism policies with specific goals should be issued in a timely manner to help businesses stimulate demand and boost the market, Ky said.

Nguyen Minh Man, director of TST Tourist’s marketing department, said the domestic tourism stimulus programme would help struggling travel and tourism businesses survive when the current COVID-19 wave ends.

Financial assistance from the Government such as tax exemption for the entire year should be provided, as well as funds for tourism promotion programmes to stimulate demand, Man said. VNS

HCM City allows bars, karaoke parlors to reopen

HCM City’s People’s Committee has allowed entertainment facilities such as bars and karaoke parlours to re-open after the country has gone through 56 straight days without any community transmission of COVID-19.