According to information from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, from the beginning of May to mid-July, tourism activities in the city quickly recovered. However, since the end of July, when the Covid-19 epidemic began to break out for the second time in a number of provinces and cities, tourism here has almost "frozen".
In many key tourist provinces and cities in the Southeast region such as Ba Ria - Vung Tau or in the Southwest region such as Can Tho, Ben Tre, within just 15 days of August, the number of tourists decreased by 70-90% compared to the same period last year. In many areas and tourist attractions that are still open to welcome visitors, although ensuring disease prevention measures, the number of visitors is still very low.
At many accommodation establishments, resorts, travel agencies, tours and services booked in August have been cancelled by tourists. Even many tourists who booked services in September have requested to cancel, although up to this point, the localities in the Eastern and Western regions of the South are still safe destinations, with no cases of Covid-19 infection in the community.
In this situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism also proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism solutions to restore tourism. If the epidemic is controlled by the end of August and September, Ho Chi Minh City will prepare tourism products and be ready for programs connecting with provinces in the Mekong Delta, Northwest, Northeast and the Central Highlands. If the epidemic is not controlled until the end of 2020, it is necessary to pay attention to the group of solutions for training and restructuring the tourism industry.
According to the leader of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho City, since June 2020, the Department has issued guidelines for implementing safe tourism criteria in preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic for tourism businesses in the city with 3 sets of criteria suitable for each field in tourism activities: accommodation establishments, travel services, tourist areas and spots. Businesses that meet the safe tourism criteria will be listed in the Safe Tourism Map by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho City and introduced through the mass media.
In Ben Tre, many businesses in the travel and tourism sector continue to welcome guests while strictly implementing epidemic prevention measures. The tours are all flexibly built by the company on a small scale, the destinations are airy spaces, close to nature, mainly experiential and exploratory activities related to coconut trees - a typical tree of Ben Tre land such as walking under the coconut canopy, watching the coconut market on the river, lighting coconut leaf torches...
