Vietnam To Welcome Vaccinated Foreign Travelers in Key Tourist Areas by December

The Vietnamese government revealed Wednesday that it’s planning to reopen key tourism destinations to fully vaccinated foreign visitors coming from countries that it considers low-risk for COVID-19, starting in December. This will forerun a full reopening to international tourism that’s targeted for June 2022, according to CNN Travel.

Vietnam implemented strict border controls right from the start of the pandemic aimed at keeping out COVID-19, and succeeded to some degree initially. Unfortunately, like several other Southeast Asian countries, its economy relies fairly heavily on tourism, which normally generates about 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

The government announced in September that it would reopen the popular resort island of Phu Quoc to fully vaccinated foreign tourists starting in November, and that all of the island’s residents would also be fully vaccinated.

Vietnam will also begin allowing tourists from approved foreign countries to visit UNESCO World Heritage Site of Halong Bay, the ancient city of Hoi An, the Central Highlands town of Dalat and the coastal hotspot of Nha Trang.

As of yet, there has been no indication given as to which foreign countries will meet Vietnam’s criteria for inbound travel.

“We are only open when it’s truly safe,” the government said in a statement. “We are moving step by step, cautiously but flexibly, to adapt to real situations of the pandemic.”

This phased approach mirrors that of neighboring Thailand, which will be reopening multiple key tourism destinations to vaccinated foreign travelers this month, including Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Mai. The Thai government has already piloted its step-by-step reopening scheme on the resort islands of Phuket and Samui.

Vietnam welcomed 3.8 million foreign arrivals in 2020, compared with the 18 million international visitors it hosted in 2019. That pre-pandemic year, the tourism sector generated $31 billion in revenue, representing 12 percent of the nation’s GDP.

Even as it attempts to cautiously reconnect with the world and restart its tourism industry, Vietnam is still struggling to rev up its vaccination rate, which is only of the lowest in Asia with 14.76 percent of its population of 98 million people being fully immunized so far. The country has thus far recorded 836,134 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 20,442 deaths.