HCMC – The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has proposed a relief package worth VND5 trillion to offer 10 million vouchers to tourists to revive the tourism sector.
The sector has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, with 95% of tour operators having suspended their operations, the ministry said in a draft report to be sent to the prime minister.
Meanwhile, many four- or five-star hotels and other luxury hotels specializing in serving foreigners have shut down since March due to a lack of guests.
To tide over the hardships triggered by the pandemic, the Government has offered various support polices to enterprises and workers, but the tourism sector has yet to receive much support.
As the tourism sector depends heavily on tourists, it is necessary to adopt a special support policy to stimulate visitors to go on tours, contributing to the recovery of the tourism sector and easing the financial burden on enterprises and workers active in the sector, according to the ministry.
The ministry proposed the relief package be used to offer financial support to tourists, each of whom can be supported with 10% of the price of a full-package tour, which is set to depart prior to December 31.
All Vietnamese citizens will be entitled to the stimulation package when buying full-package domestic tours from local travel firms. The central budget will offer the firms refunds when they make daily tax payments, Thanh Nien Online reported.
The stimulation package is expected to attract 10 million domestic tourists, raising the number of Vietnamese people traveling in Vietnam in the last four months of 2020 to 30 million, equivalent to the figure from the same period last year. The State budget will collect an estimated VND800 billion from the stimulation program.
Supported by the State stimulation package, domestic tourism is expected to play an important role in maintaining the jobs of 2.5 million laborers in the country and contributing to stabilizing the economy as travel firms, hotels, passenger transport service providers and household businesses active in the service and tourism sectors begin to resume operations.
