Hanoi (VNA) – ♕Tourism is experiencing a period of nosedive, the most serious crisis in the history, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic everywhere in the world.

Because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in the history the world is experiencing a near paralysis, and it is noteworthy that the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the past three months fell to an unprecedentedly low level. Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) showed that in the first quarter of 2020 alone, foreign visitors to Vietnam numbered only nearly 3.7 million, 18.1 percent lower than the same period in 2019, and domestic tourists 13 million. The sector bagged 143.6 trillion VND, 18 percent less than the figure of the same period a year earlier. It can be said that the darkness of the pandemic has blanketed the whole economy, with the tourism sector being the hardest hit. So after the pandemic, how long does it take and how to help the sector to recover.

Unprecedented nosedive

Data from the General Statistics Office showed that Vietnam’s two key markets of China and the Republic of Korea fell by more than 90 percent. Visitors from China numbered only 33,200, marking a fall of 91.5 percent; while those figures from the Republic of Korea were 28,700 and 91.4, respectively. The number of visitors from all the continents also fell sharply, as a result of the pandemic. According to several international travel companies, the number of the tours they had sold fell strongly while that of those cancelled was unprecedentedly huge. Earlier, the VNAT had projected that the pandemic will deprive the tourism sector of 7 billion USD but, given the pace of expansion and the possibility of extension of the pandemic, the figure is sure not to be so small. A report by the Government to the National Assembly Standing Committee, 98 percent of the tourism workers had been laid off, many of them had to change their job. Nobody is immune to “Storm COVID-19”. Not only in Vietnam, the tourism sector in the whole world is also experiencing the most terrible “freezing” in the history. Losses in the global tourism are estimated at over 80 billion USD, and it will surely increase. Deputy Director General of the VNAT Ngo Hoai Chung said the pandemic may come to an end by the end of June 2020 at the earliest, and it will take at least seven months for the sector to recover. So what does the sector need to do to weather “Storm COVID-19”?

Solutions

VNAT leading officials said they are joining the Vietnam Airlines in pooling ideas from localities and firms on a Vietnam tourism promotion programme. The two sides are also building a tourism promotion plan to attract foreign tourists right after the pandemic is brought under control. The sector has also taken the pandemic fight and the protection of the firms as well as tourists in face of the pandemic as the most important, direct and immediate task. Let’s hope those smiles will soon come back to tourism sector. Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Le Quang Tung has proposed the Prime Minister instruct Ministries, sectors and localities to take timely and concerted incentives to help firms ease difficulties. The proposal includes exemption of VAT for tourist consumption and tourism firms for Q1, Q2 and Q2 of this year, and a 50 percent reduction of the tax for them in Q4 2020 and the first quarter of the next year. Besides, tourism firms and guides should get an extension of the payment of their VAT, corporate income tax, personal income tax and social security insurance policy for 2019 and 20020 to the end of June 2021; while a reduction of land-use tax and land rental for hotels, resorts, tourism complexes and recreation zones for this year should be applied. Many experts hold that although the pandemic has caused serious subsequences to the tourism sector, it on the other hand has helped Vietnam to adjust the tourism structure and markets./.