The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) said on February 25 that it has asked travel firms to stop receiving tourists from countries hit by COVID-19 in the face of new complicated development of the disease in the Republic of Korea and Japan.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

In its document No.23/CV-HHDLVN, VITA urged local tourism associations and travel companies to keep themselves updated about the COVID-19 situation, and strictly follow the Government and Health Ministry’s regulations on the disease prevention and control.

In case tours cannot be cancelled, travel firms must ask their partners to provide information on customers’ activities in the 21 days prior to their scheduled trip to Viet Nam. The visitors are required to comply with Viet Nam’s rules on disease prevention, including quarantine if necessary.

Meanwhile, with groups of visitors who have already entered Viet Nam, local travel agents need to confirm their health condition in the 21 days before their date of arrival, as well as monitor their health during their stay in Viet Nam, and report the information to competent authorities.

VITA also suggested local firms to refrain from organising tours to countries with COVID-19 outbreaks. For groups of tourists who have already arrived into the RoK, Japan, Italy and Iran, travel agencies should change the itinerary to keep the tourists away from disease-hit areas or crowded sites. The tourists are advised to shorten travel time and strictly follow epidemic prevention rules of host countries.

As the RoK and Japan are two tourism markets of Viet Nam, travel firms should work closely with their foreign partners to carry out regulations on disease prevention and control, as well as provide good services for the visitors, thus building good and long-term relations with Korean and Japanese firms.

Earlier, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism estimated that the COVID-19 epidemic could cause losses of 5.9-7.7 billion USD for the domestic tourism sector in the next three months.

The tourism sector estimated a 90 percent decrease in the number of Chinese visitors due to the disease, and a 50-70 percent drop in holidaymakers from other countries.

Meanwhile, the number of domestic holidaymakers is likely to suffer a fall of 50-70 percent.

(Source: VNA)