International tourists explore Hanoi. Photo: Ho Ha

Airlines move to open international routes

To date, there have been no new cases of Covid-19 in our community for 2 months. Consequently, the Prime Minister assigned the Covid-19 Prevention and Control Steering Committee to announce safe areas to reopen routes to areas where Covid-19 cases have not been detected in the last 30 days. The Prime Minister affirmed that it was impossible to completely close the door, but not open the door when it was impossible to determine the safety level of countries.

Currently, airlines are ready to reopen international routes as soon as they are licensed. Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung, Head of Vietnam Airlines Development Planning, said that the company has built

and issuing procedures and regulations on flight operation and passenger service to ensure epidemiological safety, strictly comply with the regulations on quarantine and epidemic prevention of functional agencies.

Vietnam Airlines has launched regular operations of passenger routes from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - Seoul (South Korea) 5 flights per week and is expected to increase to 14 flights per week in July 2020. The airline is also ready to exploit the markets of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries as soon as next July, when the Government allows resumption of routes and prepares plans to fly back to Europe by the end of 2020.

"The immediate task of the tourism industry is to focus on restoring the domestic tourism market, but also taking into account the plan to open international markets to attract tourists", Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism shared.

Tourism is a key economic sector of the country with a direct contribution to GDP of 9.2%. More than 40,000 tourism businesses are creating about 4.5 million direct jobs and millions of other indirect, related jobs. Since the arrival of Covid-19 and its complicated development, tourism has been one of the most negatively affected industries.

According to Huong, "post-Covid-19", countries in the region will also open to international visitors and this will be a fierce race. “The tourism industry has foreseen this difficulty and has plans to attract visitors, while prioritizing safety. If the epidemic is well controlled, Vietnam will reopen the international flight route, from now until the end of 2020, tourism can welcome another 5-6 million passengers, ”Huong said.

Need procedures to welcome international visitors

Although international flights currently focus on serving the travel needs of experts, investors, students, ..., according to the report of the Vietnam Investment Review, many travel businesses have granted Practice planning, prepare tourism products to get ready for international visitors. Because according to analysis by Mr. Phung Quang Thang, Director of Hanoitourist Company, Vice President of Vietnam Tourism Association: “If we wait for the world to announce the end of the epidemic, we will deploy tourism activities, it will be too late and miss. many chances. Naturally, when reconnecting, it is necessary to research to ensure the safety of visitors, this is a top priority task ”.

In order to ensure safe and efficient international tourist arrivals, Mr. Hoang Nhan Chinh, General Secretary of the Tourism Advisory Council (TAB), said TAB proposed Vietnam to have a process and set of procedures to open the door. market.

That set of procedures includes: reopening routes and ensuring that these routes are allowed to operate direct flights only; exemption from tourist visa; require visitors on entry to medical declarations; temperature measurement of entry passengers; agreement on a Covid-19 probability test for arrivals and testing procedures; agreement on installing tracking application approved during the time in Vietnam ... TAB said that the safety and health of the people should be balanced in harmony with the calculations and economic benefits.

Accordingly, TAB proposes to start negotiations with important source markets and the most significant foreign direct investment countries. Agreements will be implemented and take effect once the criteria have been met and direct flights are established.

“Such criteria will ensure a gradual opening and a step-by-step approach is needed, both while doing and drawing experience to complete the process, because before that, we have never had a precedent to respond to this type of challenge. ”, Mr. Chinh stressed.

To prepare for this plan, TAB said that it is necessary to promote the image promotion, positioning Vietnam as a "safe haven", stating the miracles that Vietnam has achieved in controlling and fighting Covid-19 infection in the community ...

Although it is known that the journey to welcome international visitors is still difficult, but these are positive signs to help travelers to rejuvenate themselves after the crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.

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