On April 3, the Department of Tourism announced that the total revenue of the city's tourism industry in March 2020 was estimated at VND 3,496 billion, down 65.26% over the same period in 2019, bringing the total revenue in the first 3 months of 2020 to only VND 25,591 billion, equivalent to 18.28% of the 2020 plan and down 26% over the same period.
Of which, tourism revenue in March only reached 554 billion VND, down 64% compared to February and down 77.4% compared to the same period last year. Compared to the decline of other industries, tourism is one of the industries that suffered heavy losses from the COVID-19 epidemic.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic in late January 2020, the number of customers of travel companies has decreased significantly, from a decrease of 50-60% in February and by March, along with the unexpected developments of the epidemic, the number of customers and revenue of travel companies decreased by 95%-100% compared to the same period last year.
Currently, Vietnam tourism is considered to be "hibernating", with no new customers. Many travel businesses have stopped operating for several months, waiting for the epidemic to pass before restoring the market.
According to the Department of Tourism, almost all offices, travel agencies and tour operators in the area have switched to working online, only a few units are still open to work with customers, handle service cancellations, debts with partners... with a scale of less than 10 people and do not accept new tour registrations. Businesses that are no longer involved in transactions with customers or debts with partners have closed their offices to save costs and arranged for employees to work online at home.
Affected by the tourism industry, accommodation and food services also saw a 30.3% decrease in revenue in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year, estimated at VND 19,793 billion.
Currently, hotels are in a situation where there are more staff than guests, at night there are hotels with only 1-2 rooms lit up, the room capacity has decreased sharply while in previous years this is the peak time to welcome guests. The system of restaurants and eateries has also been closed since the end of March in the country's joint effort to fight the epidemic.
