Tuesday, September 8, 2020
The tourism companies in Vietnam are not quite enthusiastic in regards to the possibility of resuming flights to the six Asian destinations as they don’t expect huge number of passengers to board these flights.
Nguyen Cong Hoan, the deputy CEO of Hanoi Redtours, explained that flights to these Asian destinations will majorly carry business travelers, workers and students. “Although this shows that the Vietnamese government is opening up the doors to other countries, tourism will not see immediate benefits because the mandatory 14-day quarantine policy will discourage tourists,” he said.
The Deuty CEO was commenting on a proposed arrangement by Vietnam aviation authorities to restart commercial flights later this month to Guangzhou, Seoul (South Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Taipei (Taiwan), and Cambodia and Laos. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam stated that this idea, if approved, will surely attract more than 5,000 passengers every week to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Can Tho City.
Phan Dinh Hue, the CEO of Ho Chi Minh City-based tourism firm, VietCircle, mentioned that people opt for traveling when they feel safe, and in the middle of the pandemic, very few are actually expressing interest to take the risk contracting the virus while traveling on flight.
Also, people do not want to get “trapped” in a destination, if it is locked down, as happened to several in Aug when there was an outbreak in Da Nang City, he added.
Now, tourism companies want is that one opportunity that would help in rebooting domestic travel sector. Nguyen Quoc Ky, the chairman of leading tourism company, Vietravel, stated that authorities should set up a map of safe travel destinations in the country to boost up the demand as well as help tourism companies stay afloat.
Hoan of Hanoi Redtours suggested that authorities in each locality evaluate the current situation in their area and make that right move.
In a locality, if there were no Covid-19 cases recorded, tourism and entertainment activities should get permission, he said.
He added further by saying that in the long run, if the plan of international flight resumption does not result in a surge of community transmissions of the virus, the government could easily take away the 14-day quarantine policy.
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