Tran Trong Luu, director of HARAtrans, a transport firm, told reporters that three foreign partners of the company have discussed cooperation to organize tours to Vietnam in 2021.

“Vietnam has become well known all over the world for its great achievements to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, and its actions to both create favorable conditions to develop the domestic travel market and reassure foreign travelers to Vietnam,” Luu said.

According to Indochina Capital, Vietnam’s success in containing the epidemic has helped Vietnam obtain advantages over other countries in attracting foreign travelers.

Nguyen Trung Khanh, general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said the agency has built up three scenarios for receiving international travelers.

The first foreign market that VNAT plans to attract are nearby markets, in ASEAN and northeast Asia. It is highly possible that the first foreign travelers would arrive in Vietnam in Q4 and foreign investors will return by early 2021.

Travel firms will be able to receive domestic travelers soon after they launch demand stimulus programs. They will have to prepare 4-6 months in advance to receive foreign travelers.

However, experts said that there are differences between the domestic travel market and inbound market. Travel firms will be able to receive domestic travelers soon after they launch demand stimulus programs. They will have to prepare 4-6 months in advance to receive foreign travelers.

Tran Thi Nguyen from Sun World Group said Taiwanese travel firms are ready to send travelers to Vietnam. Anex Vietnam has proposed resuming the flights to receive Russian travelers from October. Therefore, it is necessary to build reasonable plans to receive tourists now.

According to Vo Anh Tai, deputy CEO of Saigontourist, there should be a master plan that clearly defines which markets are the key markets for Vietnam.

Resuming flights

Dinh Viet Phuong, deputy CEO of Vietjet Air, wants to know about, hen airlines can begin running advertisements and selling air tickets to receive foreigners planning to travel to Vietnam later this year.

The air carrier plans to provide flights to Taiwan, commencing inJuly, but will only carry passengers from Vietnam to Taiwan, not from Taiwan to Vietnam.

“The domestic travel market has restarted, but domestic passengers just account for 50-60 percent of the total, ” he said, adding that if the international markets cannot be opened, aircraft will still continue to be idle and tourism stagnant.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) asked the government to conduct bilateral negotiations soon with other countries on loosening entry/exit policies and reopening air routes. 

Kim Chi

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