Tourism businesses and those who work for this non-smoke industry are managing to seek proper measures to overcome difficulties sparked by the current COVID-19 wave.

The tourism industry is researching tourism products to match the needs and tastes of visitors when tourism activities are allowed to reopen. In the photo are tourists participating in sports activities on a local beach. (Photo taken in April-2021 by NHAT HA

The female manager of a 4-star hotel on Vo Nguyen Giap Street said that, in previous years, summer was considered a peak tourist season whereby tourism businesses earned high revenues. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting tourism activities. Many hotels across the city had to temporarily shut their doors for the sake of COVID-19 prevention and control.

The outlook for tourism economy recovery remains highly uncertain. Cao Tri Dung, Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, said: “If the pandemic continues to rage for a long time, it is likely that many businesses will find it more difficult to retain their key groups of tourists”.

He added that in August and September, Da Nang is expected to start experiencing the rainy season as usual. Local tourism businesses, therefore, will only rely on attracting travellers coming to the city for year-end conferences, seminars and meetings.

For the time being, focus is being placed on facilitating a total of about 1,000 totally eligible tourism employees who are stuck in financial troubles sparked by the virus resurgence to receive a combined estimate of VND65 billion worth of unsecured loans from the Da Nang Branch of the Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) to get through the tough times.

The Da Nang Tourism Association has proposed the local authorities to offer vaccinations against COVID-19 for those who now work for the local tourism industry.   Reportedly, the city's tourism industry has drawn up growth scenarios under the impact of the epidemic in 2021 and corresponding solutions, with a focus on supporting tourism businesses and human resources.

A special heed will be paid to promoting the demands for staycation (a portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation”) amongst small groups, families and students.

Under staycation (a portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation”), an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within day trip distance of their home, and does not require overnight accommodation.

Staycations are a really interesting way to ‘scratch their travel itch’ by staying close to home rather than travelling to faraway places.

This form of travel is less about the journey itself and more about breaking old patterns and habits to discover something new and becoming open-minded. In fact, staycations also help ensure that hotels and resorts that usually cater to foreign travellers can keep running and working as normally as possible by catering to domestic ones.

Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Tan Van Vuong said, along with COVID-19 prevention and control activities, in the coming time, the non-smoke  industry will step up reviewing, supplementing and adjusting solutions to implement plans for restoring tourism activities in the city in the 2021 - 2022 period and promote the quality of tourism human resources for 2021 - 2025 period, with a vision towards 2030.

Reporting by NHAT HA –Translating by A.T