HCMC – Many foreign tour operators have revealed their plans to bring tourists back to Vietnam starting early next year and are awaiting the country’s decision on reopening its doors to international tourists to finalize their plans, said Nguyen Ngoc Toan, director of Images Travel Company.
Toan added that his firm’s business partners did not cancel tours en masse but are doing so at a gradual pace based on the Vietnamese Government’s decision to resume international tourism.
Last Thursday, Images Travel received a request from TUI, Europe’s major travel firm, to cancel tours scheduled to depart from the beginning of 2021. This is the first tour cancellation request for the new year. If the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen, TUI would cancel tours set for February and then for the other months.
Normally, by this time, his firm would have booked hotel and travel boat services for next June, but at present, there have been no bookings as it remains unknown when the country resumes international tourism, Toan said.
Similarly, some tour operators in HCMC said their partners have been postponing tours as they wait for the tourism market to reopen to the international segment.
According to Transtravel Company, its French partners have made no changes to some tours booked for November, as they wait for Vietnam to lift travel restrictions. Further, in October, TransTravel will survey community tourism products from Hanoi to Vinh in Nghe An Province and Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province aimed at designing tours for 2021.
Two tour groups had purchased community tours and are set to begin their trips next year, a Transtravel representative said.
As for cruise tourism, Phan Xuan Anh, chairman of Viet Excursions Company, said his firm’s customers have steadily canceled tours for the rest of this year, but tours booked for early 2021 remained unchanged.
A Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) representative told the Saigon Times that VNAT is working on a plan to reopen international tourism but has to wait for the situation with regard to commercial flights transporting foreign experts and investors to Vietnam to decide on the plan ahead.
If the operations of these commercial flights see positive results, the international tourism segment is expected to resume by the end of the year, he added.
By Dao Loan
