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| Foreign tourists on tour in Can Tho City before the coronavirus pandemic. International tourists have continued cancelling their tours to Vietnam set from now until the second quarter of 2021 – Photo: Dao Loan |
The complicated development of Covid-19 has contradicted all predictions about when the international tourism segment would get back on track.
“All international tours to the country set for the end of the second quarter have been cancelled,” said Bui Viet Thuy Tien, managing director of Asian Trails Co., Ltd, adding that the tours for the third and fourth quarters are also on hold.
Tien told The Saigon Times Online on February 21 that as for the European market, Thai Airways had announced that it would re-operate the air routes to the market in July, but the flight frequency would be limited to two or three flights per week. As such, the number of tours to Vietnam for the third and fourth quarters is expected to be limited.
“The production of Covid-19 vaccines and the connection of international air routes are being done slowly, affecting the tourism sector,” said Tien.
Nguyen Ngoc Toan, director of Images Travel, said that its major partners in Europe had informed it of the cancellation of the Vietnam-France flight until the end of June.
The flights between the two countries in July will be limited, resulting in many tours being cancelled.
Before the Lunar New Year holiday, the firm had to refund deposits to some customers as they had been waiting for a long time for their trips, said Toan.
The Tourism Information Center at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has cited the January report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as indicating that the international tourism confidence index of UNWTO experts remained low.
Some 30% of the experts assessed that the tourism sector would continue doing badly until April, while 55% feared it would do even worse.
Many entrepreneurs active in the tourism sector said that it was tough for the international tourism sector to restart this year.
“International tours will be rearranged only when the vaccination is conducted widely and the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control,” said Nguyen Son Thuy, director of Indochina Unique.
