Vietnam will be the latest country in Southeast Asia to reopen after the government announced plans to lift most travel restrictions starting on March 15. A proposal will soon be submitted to the prime minister for approval with this seen as a formality.
Travelers wanting to visit Vietnam will be required to quarantine for one day and test negative for COVID-19 before departing their home country and again upon arrival. This is in line with measures that regional peers, such as Thailand and the Philippines, have adopted.
The country’s borders have been shut for nearly two years now apart from a vaccine passport scheme that was rolled out in select destinations late last year. Vietnam sees the plan to welcome tourists back as a key part of its reopening.
“The approval is in accordance with the government’s new responses to the pandemic, which are adapting safely and flexibly and controlling the virus effectively,” the government said in a statement.
Related: Flight bookings pickup as borders reopen in Southeast Asia
Restarting tourism in Vietnam
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism in Vietnam was taking off. It was one of the 10 fastest growing tourism countries in the world, recording an average growth rate of 22 percent for three consecutive years. There were 18 million international visitors along with 85 million domestic tourists in 2019 with initial projections for 2020 surpassing those totals.
While it may take some time to reach those figures once more, experts have remained extremely bullish regarding the sector’s recovery. Ms Bui Thi Thanh Huong, Vice Chairwoman and CEO of Sun Group, cites several reasons for this.
“Compared with other countries in the region and around the world, Vietnam not only has advantages in natural resources but also in terms of its political and social stability. Moreover, in recent years, with the participation of major investors, including Sun Group, Vietnam’s tourism infrastructure has seen major investment in large scale and high-class developments that have expanded opportunities for tourism,” Ms Huong told Dot Property. “The room for Vietnam’s tourism development is still very large; many fields remain open, yet to be adequately explored.”
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