The proposal which was put forward by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism received an approval in principle from Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at a working session with leaders of the cultural ministry and several provinces on October 21.
Dam stressed the need to quickly carry out a roadmap for reopening and restoring international tourism markets, but reminded localities of the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures to ensure safety for both visitors and local residents.
Several tourism driven localities such as Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, and Da Nang have requested that the Government permit them to receive back foreign tourists from November as soon as Vietnam moves into a post-pandemic period.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has worked out a roadmap to be implemented on a trial basis in three phases.
In the first phase, Vietnam will reopen the door to foreign tourists from November 2021 who book package tours to Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam and Da Nang through charter and commercial flights.
The second phase, starting from January 2022, will see Vietnam expand the scope of receiving international tourists and connecting destinations through regular charter and commercial flights.
Visitors can travel to various tourist destinations in different localities after completing their tour programme in the first destination within a period of seven days. In this phase, they can move back and forth between destinations in Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Ninh.
In the third phase, Vietnam will fully reopen its door to international tourism services from the second quarter of 2022, on the condition that all COVID-19 prevention and control plans are in place.
Currently many localities have developed their plans to welcome back foreign visitors. They are accelerating COVID-19 vaccinations to ensure local residents, including hotel and resort staff and tour guides, are fully inoculated against the virus.
