Vietnam could welcome 6 to 8 million foreign visitors this year if COVID-19 remains under control and international tourism could be resumed in the third quarter of this year, a webinar in Hanoi on June 10 heard.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has said it has been working on a pilot plan to bring international tourists to select islands, with Phu Quoc among those considered.

The tourism sector is making concerted efforts to recover after a stagnant stage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on promoting domestic travel while preparing to welcome foreign arrivals.

Foreigners can now experience the next best thing to a holiday in Vietnam via an online tool called “Stay at Home with Vietnam”, which was launched by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board.

As Vietnam has been removed from the global list of potential destinations spreading COVID-19, domestic tourism is expected to witness growth after implementation of several stimulus programmes and sales promotions.

The number of international tourist arrivals to Vietnam during January-February rose 4.8 percent year on year to 3.23 million, the lowest increase in the past four years, the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) said on February 29.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the Vietnam Grand Prix Corporation (VGPC) on February 21 inked a cooperation agreement on promoting the country’s tourism in association with the Formula One race.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien has stressed the need to develop a set of travel safety standards to develop the tourism sector, which has suffered since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Le Quang Tung chaired a conference in Hanoi on February 6 to discuss measures to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus-caused acute respiratory disease on the tourism sector.

With 50 five-star hotels and 68 four-star hotels being built last year, the luxury segment now has 466 hotels with 97,098 rooms.

Vietnam greeted over 18 million international tourists in 2019, the highest level so far, according to the General Statistics Office.

The tourism sector has set the goal of attracting 20.5 million international visitors in 2020 and serving 90 million domestic travellers.

Vietnam still lags in the region considerably with regards to its tourist service and air transport infrastructure.

The Vietnam Travel & Tourism Summit 2019 opened in Hanoi on December 9 with four symposiums taking place in the morning to discuss bottlenecks of Vietnam’s tourism.

In 2018, the government approved to establish a public tourism development fund with an initial annual budget of US$4.3 million.

The 14th National Assembly will debate this week some draft laws, including the law amending and supplementing some articles of the law on entry, exit, transit and residence of foreigners in Vietnam, as part of the ongoing eighth session.

As of the second quarter of 2019, Vietnam ranks fourth in Southeast Asia in international arrivals, after Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, according to the Pacific Asia Tourism Association.

Accounting for only around 20 per cent of the tourism market in Vietnam, online travel agencies are growing fast and fiercely, competing with traditional travel suppliers.

The international tourism segment, despite seeing less growth in tourists than the domestic segment, reportedly contributed a larger proportion to the tourism sector’s total revenue.