Ho Chi Minh City plans to restore tourism after Covid-19 pandemic

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism has completed a scenario to restore the city’s economy. Accordingly, there will be two scenarios to support the tourism industry in the coming time based on the development of the Covid-19 epidemic.

In the first scenario, if the Covid-19 epidemic is controlled in September, Ho Chi Minh City will implement domestic tourism stimulus based on linking hotels, travel agencies, and transportation businesses to tourist attractions to create new attractive products. In addition, the city will also promote the implementation of cooperation and development with the Southeast provinces, the Mekong Delta, and the Northeast - Northwest provinces. The Department will also strengthen communication activities so that tourism businesses and tourists can ensure safety criteria in disease prevention, ensuring the health of people and tourists when participating in tourism programs.

The second scenario, if the epidemic lasts until the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, means that tourism and travel activities will be suspended. Tourism promotion activities will be focused on restructuring and retraining human resources in the tourism industry. The Department will support businesses in restructuring, reorienting the tourist market and building new products to prepare to restart business when the epidemic is under control.

According to statistics from the Department of Tourism, currently about 90 - 95% of travel businesses have temporarily suspended operations, only a few are still open to handle debts with partners and customers. According to the Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism, the Covid-19 epidemic has caused many hotels to cut staff, divide shifts into 2 - 3 days/week, room occupancy decreased by 91.5% compared to the same period in 2019. The number of employees decreased by 61% compared to the same period, of which 87.4% of employees took unpaid leave and 12.6% terminated their employment.

Minh Chi