Tourists to Hoi An (photo: thanhnien.vn)

March 15 was an apt time to reopen tourism to foreign visitors because by then Vietnam was close to completing its program of administering enough booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine to ensure herd immunity. If Vietnam waited any longer, customers might be lost to other reopening tourism markets.

Vietnam will host the Southeast Asian Games in May. Reopening to international tourism should increase the number of visitors from ASEAN countries where vaccination coverage is high.

According to Google Destination Insights, searches related to Vietnam’s tourism and aviation began to increase last December and have continued to rise sharply. The number of searches on January 1, 2022, was up 222% from one month earlier and 248% from one year ago. Since then, the number of searches on Vietnamese airline websites has been high. On January 21, there were 425% more searches than on that date in 2021. On February 3, there were 374% more searches than last year.

Vietnam’s tourism recovery and development plan aims to: ensure a safe environment, a healthy society, and sustainable development; reform tourism activities; tap all resources; create new tourism products; and improve management.

Russian tourists in Khanh Hoa province in November, 2021 (photo: Cam Ranh Rivera Beach Resort)

Human resources are considered the key to recovery and development. Travel companies will focus on applying technology, improving tourism products, and enhancing tourism infrastructure to increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism. Tourist destinations, too, must improve their competitiveness to win back tourists after a two-year shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam is accelerating campaigns and programs to promote tourism at home and overseas, specifically the “Live fully in Vietnam” and the “Safe Tourism-Full Experience” programs, and is prioritizing visitors from Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Europe, Australia, India, and markets with which Vietnam has a mutual recognition of vaccine passports.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam waived visas for official passport holders of 93 countries. Vietnam’s visa exemption policy applied to popular passport holders of 13 countries with unilateral exemption and 11 with bilateral exemption.

The Tourism Advisory Council has asked the Government to extend unilateral visa exemption for 3 years for citizens of the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain, and to extend their maximum stay to 30 days from date of entry. It was also suggested that the Government expand its list of visa exemptions to citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Switzerland, and extend unilateral visa exemption for 3 years beginning January 1, 2023 for citizens of the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Belarus. The Council proposed adding Chinese Taipei, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,  Pakistan, and several European countries to the list of countries where travelers can obtain e-visas to Vietnam.

Vietnam is confident its new visa exemption policy will revive tourism and boost exchanges with other countries.