Da Nang eyes return of foreign tourists in November

Truong Thi Hong Hanh, director of the city Department of Tourism, said his agency has submitted draft plans to the city administration for admitting two kinds of international visitors.

The first will comprise foreigners arriving in Vietnam on commercial flights for official and business purposes. They will be quarantined for seven days on arrival and told to monitor their health for another seven as mandated by the Ministry of Health.

The second group will comprise visitors from designated markets that have resumed tourism and instituted a vaccine passport program.

They are required to book package tours with designated travel agencies.

Initially city authorities eye tourists from Russia and South Korea, which have resumed tourism activities and eased quarantine restrictions.

Currently South Koreans returning from Vietnam are exempt from quarantine while Russians only need to quarantine for seven days, Hanh said.

South Korean travel firms want to bring 200 tourists a week to Da Nang and Russian ones, 2,000-4,000.

Da Nang authorities also plan to allow in domestic tourists from October 20 and are considering travel bubbles with other localities such as Quang Nam and Quang Ninh provinces from next month. Quang Nam is home to several popular destinations like Hoi An town, An Bang beach and Cham islet, and Quang Ninh to Ha Long Bay.

Da Nang lifted most Covid restrictions and reopened public beaches and accommodation facilities in October.

In the current wave, Da Nang had over 4,900 Covid cases but has managed to contain the outbreak.

The pandemic has severely affected the city’s tourism industry. Da Nang received more than 8.6 million visitors in 2019 and earned revenues of VND31 trillion.

But last year the number fell 55 percent to 3.9 million.

Vietnam is planning to switch from seeking zero Covid cases to responding safely to the disease so that socio-economic activities can resume after months of lockdowns.