Foreign tourists in downtown HCMC. The city’s tourism industry has been hit severely by the new coronavirus – PHOTO: VNA

The tourism industry of Vietnam’s southern metropolis has been hit severely by the new coronavirus, officially called Covid-19, stated Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the municipal Department of Tourism.

As many as 87,888 tourists at home and abroad have canceled tours and tourism services in the city due to the spread of Covid-19, leading to heavy losses, 22 surveyed major tour operators in the city told the department.

The city welcomed some 335,000 visitors in the first two months of the year, falling a massive 62% versus the same period last year and leaving the city’s tourism turnover down by 65%, Vu remarked.

Also, the fallout from the epidemic has been clearly felt by three- to five-star hotels, restaurants and convention centers, as their revenues are plunging.HCMC –

Many hospitality employees were fired or have quit their jobs. The Novotel Saigon and the five-star Tan Son Nhat hotels saw their workforces declining by 25% and 20%, respectively. It was forecast that total revenues of 24 three- to five-star hotels will likely tumble by some 62.5% in March and April.

Given the escalating spread of Covid-19, many travel firms in the city decided to suspend tours scheduled between March and August to South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy and France, which have confirmed cases of the virus. SGT