vietnam tourism after covid 19

Vietnam tourism recovers after Covid-19 pandemic - Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism

(TITC) – In 2022, with the fluctuations of the economic and political situation in the world, world tourism activities have not been restored as forecast but took place slowly, especially in Asia. Vietnam tourism has actively implemented many solutions and achieved positive results, making an important contribution to economic recovery after the pandemic.

The positive recovery of Vietnam tourism post Covid-19

2022 is the first year to restore tourism activities under new normal conditions since 15th March, up to now the tourism industry recorded good result.

In 2022, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) proposed the leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as well as developed state management documents on tourism, suggest the leaders of the Ministry to organize many joint activities, cooperation, especially regional linkage in tourism development.

VNAT has promoted Vietnam tourism on digital platforms to target markets, and joint important international travel fairs in order to affirm that Vietnam is a safe, attractive destination and fully ready to welcome tourists back after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vietnam welcomed about 3.5 million international visitor arrivals in 2022. The number of domestic visitors reached 101.3 million arrivals, far exceeding the number of 85 million domestic arrivals in 2019. Tourist receipt is estimated at 495 trillion VND, reaching 66% compared to 2019.

According to the World Economic Forum's 2022 report, Travel and Tourism Development Index of Vietnam in 2021 ranks 52nd, up 8 places compared to 2019, standing in among the 3 greatest improvement countries in the world.

VNAT’s Chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh at the 29th World Travel Awards Asia & Oceania Gala Ceremony organised in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: TITC)

At the World Travel Awards 2022, Vietnam's tourism excellently won 16 of the world's leading award categories and 48 of Asia's leading award categories. In the last 5 years, Vietnam has been 3 times honored as the World's Leading Heritage Destination; 4 times received the title of Asia's Leading Destination. Vietnam National Administration of Tourism was 3 times voted the leading tourism board in Asia. For the sixth time, Vietnam won the title of "Best Golf Tourism Destination in Asia". And many other prestigious international awards for Vietnamese localities and businesses.

Exciting tourism recovery activities with the leading companion of VNAT

Immediately after the tourism was reopened, VNAT focused the communication program with the theme "Live fully in Vietnam" to attract international visitors and the program "Safe travel, full experience" to promote the domestic market. VNAT joined with localities and businesses to organize a series of events to restart tourism activities nationwide.

On the occasion of the 31st SEA Games held in Vietnam, the tourism industry took advantage to strongly promote the image of safe, friendly and attractive Vietnam tourism to sports delegations and international tourists. VNAT released the video clip "Discover Vietnam – Let’s shine and live fully” to welcome international friends.

Vietnam tourism took part in promotional events including VITM Hanoi, HCM ITE, Kon Tum Tourism Forum, Mekong Tourism Forum 2022 and especially WTM London 2022; attending World Tourism Organization Conferences in Maldives, World Tourism Industry Conference in Korea, ASEAN Tourism Forum in Cambodia, KOPIST High-Level Policy Online Forum, conducting bilateral meetings between Vietnam, Japan and Singapore.

Imprint of digital transformation and tourism promotion communication

In 2022, Vietnam tourism improved to apply digital transformation. The smart tourism ecosystem has been formed on the basis of the core digital platforms of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism such as the Vietnam tourism database; Vietnam Travel app; Smart travel card and many other technology products to support tourism business and management. VNAT also organized programe to guide digital transformation in many localities nationwide.

The communication and promotion of tourism on the websites and VNAT’s social networks is focused. Travel media show on YouTube under title “Discover Vietnam” attracted a million viewers. Website vietnam.travel ranked 152 thousand globally, up 423 thousand places compared to the same period in 2021.

International visitors to Vietnam Tourism Pavilion at WTM London 2022

Vietnam tourism industry strives to welcome 8 million international visitor arrivals in 2023

In next year, Vietnam tourism will face many difficult due to world economy showing signs of recession. Vietnam economy has many challenges. World tourism continues to have a recovery but has not returned to the level of 2019. Domestic tourism continues to have growth but the speed will slow down. The main source markets of Vietnam have not yet fully opened. The impact of Industry 4.0 on the tourism industry will be stronger.

In 2023, Vietnam's tourism sets a target of welcoming 110 million visitor arrivals, of which about 8 million international visitor arrivals; tourism receipt is about 650 trillion VND.

Vietnam tourism will participate in international tourism events such as the ASEAN Tourism Forum ATF 2023 in Indonesia; ITB in Berlin - Germany; WTM in London - UK; promote Vietnam tourism on CNN and some major international media channels; organizing roadshows in ASEAN, Northeast Asia, Australia, Europe and North America; joining Binh Thuan Province in organizing Visit Vietnam Year 2023 – “Binh Thuan: Green tourism”.

Tourism Information Technology Center

Reimagining tourism: How Vietnam can accelerate travel recovery

This article is part of the ongoing Future of Vietnam series, which explores key topics that will shape the country’s future growth. Separate articles discuss Vietnam's post-COVID-19 economic recovery , its longer-term growth aspirations  and ways for ecosystem players to win in Vietnam .

Download the Vietnamese translation  (PDF – 2.4MB).

For most players in the travel industry , the idea of vacationers lounging on a beach thousands of miles from home or sailing the high seas seems like a distant memory. Globally, countries experienced a decline of 35 to 48 percent in tourism expenditures last year compared with 2019 . Vietnam, with its ten-month international border closure, has not been exempted.

Tourism contributes a significant share to Vietnam’s GDP, and the economy has relied on domestic travel to buoy the sector. Local tourism resumed shortly after the country ended its relatively brief lockdown—just in time for 2020’s summer holiday season. Our analysis shows that demand for domestic travel in Vietnam will continue to grow and will recover relatively fast because of growing domestic spending: vacationers who cannot yet travel abroad are redirecting their money locally, at a higher level than in 2019.

As Vietnam’s travel sector continues to evolve and as prospects of international travel become increasingly feasible with vaccination rollouts, travel and tourism players have to adapt to survive. This article gives an overview of the state of Vietnam’s tourism sector, looks ahead at how the industry is likely to recover, and maps out a way forward for the country’s travel and tourism companies.

The state of travel in Vietnam today: Staying afloat

Vietnam’s tourism sector relies heavily on international travel, which plunged last year. International flights dropped 80 percent in October 2020 from the same time period a year earlier (Exhibit 1). Hotels, in turn, filled only 30 percent of their rooms.

The sharp drop in foreign travelers has had an outsize impact on tourism expenditures—and Vietnam’s overall economy—because they spend significantly more than their local counterparts. In 2019, a year in which the tourism industry accounted for 12 percent of the country’s GDP, 1 “Total revenue from tourists in the period of 2008–2019,” Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, May 29, 2020, vietnamtourism.gov.vn. international travelers made up only 17 percent of overall tourists in Vietnam, yet accounted for more than half of all tourism spending—averaging $673 per traveler compared with $61 spent on average by domestic travelers (Exhibit 2). The tourism sector created 660,000 jobs between 2014 and 2019, 2 Global Economic Impact & Trends 2020 , World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), June 2020, wttc.org. and this sharp expenditure dive has also stunted the country’s food and beverage and retail industries.

As a return to pre-COVID-19 levels of international tourism may be far off, the travel sector’s short-term revival could depend on local tourism. In 2019, Vietnamese tourists spent $15.5 billion, of which $5.9 billion flowed overseas. The majority of tourists are unable to leave the country, so they are looking domestically to scratch their travel itch. Travel companies should therefore rise to the occasion and capture value from this opportunity.

Looking ahead: Vietnam’s tourism industry can recover by 2024 if it implements a zero-case-first approach

Even with favorable tailwinds driven by domestic tourism, Vietnam will be dependent on international markets, which represent around $12 billion in spending. The majority of Vietnam’s international tourists come from Asian countries, with those from China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan accounting for around 80 percent of Vietnam’s foreign tourism spending. Vietnam’s strong economic ties with these countries could lead to a relatively fast tourism-industry recovery compared with other key tourist destinations in Europe and North America (Exhibit 3).

To make the most of these ties, Vietnam has been pursuing a zero-case-first strategy  since the start of the pandemic. This strategy is associated with markets in which COVID-19 transmission rates are low and—as a result—traveler confidence, at least on a domestic level, is relatively high.

By implementing the zero-case-first approach and taking into account Vietnam’s currently resilient local economy and proactive government campaigns, Vietnam’s tourism sector could recover to precrisis levels in 2024 (Exhibit 4).

Under this scenario, three paradigms are changing the way travel companies plan for Vietnam’s recovery:

• Shifts in tourism behavior could result in high-end domestic trips. With borders remaining closed for outbound travel, an increase in domestic luxury trips could occur as travelers reallocate their budgets. Of course, as noted above, the spending power of domestic tourists is weaker than that of foreign tourists, so this type of travel cannot completely fill the gap created by the lack of international travelers.
• Price cuts could be used to stimulate demand but aren’t sustainable for the long term. Many travel companies offered discounts in the immediate aftermath of the crisis in order to compete for business and stimulate demand. This may result in price dilution, especially for hotels across the country, and thus may not be a sustainable strategy for the long term.
• International travel bubbles have to be explored with caution. Currently, Vietnam has strict travel restrictions in place and allows only a select number of weekly international flights for travel by experts and diplomats, who are subject to mandatory quarantine on arrival. Vietnam needs to protect the status quo of having near-zero rates of COVID-19 cases and cannot risk opening its borders freely until herd immunity is reached, most likely through mass vaccinations. Thus, it could take some time before inbound foreign tourism returns at scale. In the meantime, there might be some opportunity to pursue more gradual and less risky measures. For instance, there have been discussions about establishing travel bubbles to allow travel between other countries with zero or near-zero transmissions, such as Australia, China, and Singapore. Travel companies should be prepared for two scenarios: one in which travel bubbles open up for inflows of international tourists, and the other in which domestic tourism remains the main driver of value.

Six actions to jump-start Vietnam’s tourism recovery

As travel companies reimagine their pathways to recovery, it is important to address the risks and anxieties related to COVID-19, while also solving for the pain points and trends that existed before the crisis. Below are six steps that Vietnam, and other countries operating in a zero-case-first market approach, can take as they embark on this road to recovery.

Focus on domestic travelers

Local demand can be revitalized by focusing on emerging destinations with the joint cooperation of local governments, online travel agencies, attractions, hotels, and airlines. Outdoor tourism that involves sunshine, beaches, mountains, and nature were among the top choices for Vietnamese travelers after the lockdown was lifted in mid-May last year, and airports at the two big travel hubs of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were busy. To further tap into the domestic opportunity, operators will have to focus on affordability while striving to maintain high-quality products and experience.

Consider new pricing models to rebuild demand

Rebuilding demand and propelling volume, through discounts and presales, are key tactics during the early stages of recovery, especially for high-end operators that will not be able to tap into international demand for some time. However, the crisis has also forced operators to set aside their existing commercial playbooks. Historical booking patterns and trends normally used as key reference points for price optimization and yield management may no longer be as relevant. In this context of depleted demand, the paradox is that while price cuts are necessary, they could also be dangerous. In this light, companies can also explore opportunities to bundle products—which can offer upselling and cross-selling opportunities—as well as diversify their revenue stream and enhance premium product and pricing.

Five-star hotels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, for example, can provide full “staycation” packages for families, complete with home pickup by luxury car, a suite, and discounts on food and drinks. Tourism companies and hotels could work together to provide end-to-end travel packages that include flights, train tickets, limousine and bus services, and accommodations. Other companies could capitalize on booming demand for luxury and outdoor activities, such as yacht tours or farm stays.

As demand grows and confidence increases, operators will naturally be inclined to revert to a more dynamic pricing model, based on indicators such as hotel occupancy and domestic-air-travel passenger numbers—and how they grow toward achieving prepandemic levels. That will then give companies an opportunity to refine optimal pricing mechanisms, especially around key domestic holidays such as Tet (the Vietnamese New Year). This is not something that all countries are getting right. Many hotels in Germany , for example, missed pricing or revenue-management opportunities when demand for summer travel reemerged last year.

In the future, dynamic pricing models and the revenue-management function will need to be revisited, based on three new axioms: traveler segments will not be the same for a long period of time and will be a stronger and more diverse domestic mix; demand elasticities will be different, with health concerns playing a more influential role in decision making; and demand will remain very volatile, as observed in Vietnam during the Tet holiday this year, when a small spike in COVID-19 cases led to a big drop in bookings and travel demand throughout the country.

The time for digital (really) is now

Even before the pandemic, consumer reliance on digital for travel-related bookings had been growing. In 2018, online travel activity made up 19 percent of the total tours and activity market size. The pandemic has made the adoption of mobile and digital tools even more essential. Strategic collaborations—such as online travel agencies providing ticket-booking services via instant messaging and social-media platforms—could offer an opportunity for increased market penetration.

At the same time, travel companies should revamp their online touchpoints and experiences to improve customer experience. This is already starting to happen: the website of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has virtual tours for its most popular destinations, and some tour guides have organized real-time online tours for international customers. In addition, a commercial titled, “Why not Vietnam” aired on CNN in October 2020 to drive international traffic to the website, and on the domestic level, a reality show with the same name offered up weekly online travel photo contests to engage viewers.

Furthermore, companies could also think about placing digital tools in new places within the customer journey. They must recognize that factors promoting customer loyalty may have changed; near-term uncertainty may mean, for example, that the ability to cancel a reservation matters more than brand choice or price. Taking this into account, companies could empower customers to build their own itineraries using connected digital tools that make it easier for them to modify or cancel their plans. Solutions and policies that provide choice and control will help build the long-term trust and confidence necessary to get travelers back on the road and in the air.

Lay the groundwork for inbound demand

To capture early outbound demand, travel players could benefit from tracking the development of travel bubbles. This is especially relevant for Vietnam, as the majority of tourists to Vietnam are from nearby regions with strong economic ties and relatively low transmission rates. As stated earlier in this article, our analysis finds that nearby countries such as China, Malaysia, and Thailand could provide inbound expenditure growth of at least the CAGR between 2020 and 2025 (Exhibit 3).

In this context, travel companies will need to be flexible and nimble to capture early international-travel demand—and should be prepared to implement strict health and safety protocols that fulfill the stipulations of both domestic and destination security policies. That said, betting on travel bubbles cannot in itself be a strategy in the short term, as international arrivals are expected to remain low in 2021, and foreign demand will not return to 2019 levels before 2025.

Reinvent the traveler’s experience beyond accommodation—and ‘redistribute’ tourism investments toward unconventional and more diverse destinations

Globally, travelers are personalizing their trips through destination adventures. Tourism spending is shifting away from accommodation to activities—a trend that holds true for Vietnam. According to a report released by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Vietnamese travelers have allocated smaller budgets for accommodation in the past few years, accounting for approximately 15 percent of travel expenditures in 2019, down from 23 percent in 2011.

Instead of spending on luxury accommodations, travelers are saving money for destination experiences. Many tourists are booking activities before they travel, which suggests the in-destination experience has a bigger impact in the overall tourist decision-making process. Many adventure activities, such as cave discovery, highland hiking, isolated island stays, water sports, and food festivals have become the main reason for travelers to visit a destination in the first place.

In Vietnam, examples of efforts aimed at developing a distinct experience—rather than specific infrastructures—have emerged recently, such as the development of Ho Chi Minh City’s “night economy,” and diversified marketing from the Binh Duong province to spotlight its festivals as main attractions. VNAT is also participating in this effort, specifically making farm stays in mountainous areas an axis for the development of more indigenous experiences. Meanwhile, other regions are also marketing unique experiences: Dalat is promoting its hiking and camping attractions, Mui Ne its golf and water sports, and Ninh Binh and Phong Nha-Ke Bang their nature activities.

Local operators, who often lag behind big travel companies in terms of resources but are more agile in organizing personalized activities, can leverage increasingly popular online players to connect directly with customers and provide these options. International online travel agencies such as TripAdvisor, as well as closer-to-home players such as Traveloka  and Triip.me, have been building dedicated “experience” platforms to inspire users and allow them to choose the most suitable tours by providing a range of attractive options for destination adventures. Tourism companies could shift their efforts away from building resorts and selling sightseeing tickets to designing exceptional activities and leverage these platforms to take advantage of travel-experience trends.

Reimagine government’s role in tourism

In most countries, reinventing the tourism industry will involve industry professionals working in concert with industry groups and governments . Vietnamese tourism administrators have an exciting opportunity to reimagine their roles and lead the sector through recovery and beyond—first, by boosting domestic demand to make up for lost income from international travelers, and second, by promoting Vietnam’s image as a country that has managed the pandemic fairly well. To do this, three things should occur:

• In the short term, government and industry associations need to ensure the survival of operators. The government can experiment with new and sustainable financing options such as hotel revenue pooling, in which a subset of hotels operating at higher occupancy rates share revenue with others. This would allow hotels to optimize variable costs and reduce the need for government stimulus plans.
• In the midterm, government-backed digital and analytic transformation is necessary, especially to level the playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises, which made up more than 50 percent of travel suppliers in 2018. Encouraging and helping local operators adjust to the demand for online travel services is critical to help them stay competitive. Government can play a vital role as a matchmaker, connecting suppliers to distributors and intermediaries to create packages attractive to a specific segment of tourists, and then use tourist engagement to provide further analytical insights to travel intermediaries. This ability allows online travel agents to diversify their offerings by providing more experiences off the beaten track. The Singapore Tourism Analytics Network (STAN) and the Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) platforms are examples of how this mechanism can work at scale.
• Finally, Vietnam has a solid opportunity to boost its stature as an adventure destination. Governments and industry associations can leverage the overall momentum of the country, as well as the expected return of international travel, to boost demand. Our analysis finds that in the Asia–Pacific region, adventure remains the leading travel trend searched by travelers, so Vietnam is well positioned to leverage this trend. Similarly, investments are also expected to shift away from mega development projects, such as Phu Quoc and Nha Trang, toward small- and medium-scale projects and cities that offer specialized offerings like sports tourism, medical tourism, and even agricultural tourism.

Travel players in Vietnam can seek to accelerate the industry’s recovery by capturing emerging growth opportunities domestically as they gradually rebuild international travelers’ confidence. Our six steps should set the stakeholders in Vietnam’s travel industry in the right direction and help them thrive in the tourism economy of the future .

Margaux Constantin is a partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office; Matthieu Francois is an associate partner in the Ho Chi Minh City office, where Thao Le is a consultant.

The authors wish to thank Celine Birkl, Bruce Delteil, and Alex Le for their contributions to the article.

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Vietnam's tourism sector recovering strongly after pandemic

In 2019, vietnam was among the ten countries with the fastest tourism growth in the world, with more than 18 million international visitors and 85 million domestic visitors..

On November 17, 2021, a flight carrying 29 foreign tourists landed at Da Nang Airport.

The flight departed from Seoul and was carrying the first foreign tourists to visit Vietnam, two years on from the country closing the border and cancelling all international flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The flight came shortly after the Government issued Resolution 128 on safe and flexible adaption to and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Resolution, which agreed with a pilot roadmap to reopen borders to foreign tourists last November, has played a key role in the tourism industry's gradually recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic.

One year after the Resolution was adopted, the industry achieved many positive and impressive results.

Director General of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh said in 2019, Vietnam was among the ten countries with the fastest tourism growth in the world, with more than 18 million international visitors and 85 million domestic visitors. The country earned roughly VND720 trillion (US$30.05 billion) from the sector.

However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has frozen the country's tourism industry for two years. As a result, Vietnam stopped welcoming international arrivals in March 2020 while domestic tourism was delayed and disrupted.

By the end of 2021, Resolution 128 was adopted and piloted in Phu Quoc Island in Kien Giang Province, Hoi An Ancient Town in Quang Nam Province, Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province, Ha Long City in Quang Ninh Province and HCM City.

During two weeks, these provinces welcomed nearly 1,000 international visitors.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism guided localities and businesses to implement measures to respond to the pandemic and propose policy packages on finance and social security to support businesses and workers.

It regularly conducted online advertising for both domestic and international visitors. A campaign called "Live fully in Vietnam" was launched to welcome international tourists back to five destinations, including the northern province of Quang Ninh, the three central coastal localities of Quang Nam, Da Nang, and Khanh Hoa; and Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang.

On March 15, Vietnam officially reopened to international tourists, boosting the recovery at a fast pace after the pandemic was under control.

Tourism flourishes

The search volume for Vietnamese tourism has been surging while the number of international arrivals has also been rising.

Domestic travel has continued to play an essential role in Vietnam's tourism. In the first six months of the year, the total number of domestic tourists has reached about 87 million, far exceeding the year plan of 60 million.

International tourists have reached nearly 1.8 million, bringing total revenue of nearly VND400 trillion ($16.69 billion), or about 78 per cent of the earnings in the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hanoi, one of the critical areas of the country's tourism, has welcomed over 13.8 million visitors in the past nine months, an increase of more than four times compared to the same period in 2021. As a result, total revenue is estimated to reach VND39.69 trillion, up 4.7 times over the same period of last year.

Lao Cai, with a series of unique and attractive tourism products such as the Sa Pa love market, Bac Ha White Plateau Festival, rose-wine festival, and snow festival, has attracted about two million visitors.

Kien Giang Province has made remarkable progress with over 6.1 million visitors, exceeding 9.2 per cent of the year plan. Phu Quoc Island has welcomed over four million visitors.

HCM City, the largest metropolis of Vietnam, has received 21.6 million domestic visitors and 2.1 million foreign visitors. At the 29th World Travel Awards Asia & Oceania Gala Ceremony held in HCM City in early September, Vietnam won 48 awards.

Exploiting potential markets

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, Asia-Pacific has the slowest sign of recovery, with arrivals reaching only 14 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the first nine months of this year.

The reason is that many countries still apply strict COVID-19 prevention and control policies.

In Vietnam alone, the National Administration of Tourism admitted that the number of international arrivals only reached about 30 per cent of the targeted set for this year and 85.4 per cent lower than in the same period in 2019.

The administration said there are still difficulties in attracting international visitors to Vietnam after the pandemic.

About 60-70 per cent of international visitors come from Northeast Asia, which has not yet fully opened to tourism. Therefore, the peak time of international tourists has not started.

A shortage of tourism promotion offices abroad has restricted Vietnam's tourism development compared to Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia.

The administration said it is necessary to focus on key tourism markets such as Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America and promote potential markets such as India and China in the coming time.

Key tourism products include sea and island tourism, resort, cultural tourism, natural tourism, ecotourism and city tourism. It said that new products such as healthcare tourism, sports tourism, and golf tourism should also be promoted. 

Source: Vietnam News

• Vietnam’s tourism recovery strongly after pandemic
• Tourism rebound drives Vietnam’s post-pandemic economic recovery: Singaporean daily
• Vietnam's tourism revives, starts again from scratch

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Vietnam Tourism 2021: Needs determination and effort to overcome difficulties

In 2020, Viet Nam’s tourism suffered extremely heavy losses due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. After many years of continuous impressive growth, in 2020, for the first time, Viet Nam recorded a sharp decline in the number of domestic and international tourists due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The total number of tourists served by accommodation, food and beverage service establishments in 2020 reached 97.3 million VND, a decrease of 44% over the previous year; a number of tourists served by travel agencies was 3.7 million, down 80.1%. International arrival to Viet Nam decreased 78.7% year on year, gained only 3.8 million arrivals. The sharp decline in the number of domestic and international tourists has led to a significant decline in revenue for accommodation, food and beverage service, estimated at 61.8 trillion VND, down by 43.2 percent.

Facing the accumulated difficulties, the tourism industry has made efforts to implement many solutions to remove difficulties for businesses and workers; proposed to the Government and the Prime Minister solutions to support the recovery of business activities such as land tax, electricity prices, reduced or free sightseeing at many destinations. In addition, many businesses also promptly changed from exploiting international markets to focus on domestic tourism, thereby becoming a salvage solution in the epidemic period. The tourism industry has twice launched the stimulating tourism demand program: The first time in May 2020 with the theme “Vietnamese people travel in Vietnam” and the second time in September 2020 with the theme “Viet Nam tourism – a safe and attractive destination”. These programs have received a positive response from localities, businesses and people, created a new movement trend, spread the inspiration to discover a safe and attractive destination in Viet Nam. These programs have brought practical contributions to the economic recovery process: Many domestic tourists have been experienced and explored Vietnam’s top tourist destinations and many unknown places for the first time at a fairly average cost. Entertainment facilities, shopping activities are activated; travel businesses are re-opened, thereby creating jobs for a certain number of workers… Although the revival of tourism may not be enough to boost the operation of the whole country but it can keep small businesses active and stimulate the local economy, reducing negative impacts of the epidemic on the economy until international tourism is active again.

Influenced by the Covid-19 epidemic, the accommodation, food, beverage and travel services have also been heavily affected. In January 2021, the revenue of accommodation, food, beverage services was estimated at 48.7 trillion VND, down 4.1% compared to the same period last year, of which accommodation revenue was estimated at 4.5. trillion, down 15%; travel revenue was estimated at 1.6 trillion VND, down 62.2%, of which Hanoi’s revenue decreased by 45.6%; Can Tho decreased by 50.1%; Da Nang decreased 68.2%; Ho Chi Minh city by 69.9%; Quang Nam decreased 91.3%; Khanh Hoa decreased 95%.

The Covid-19 in the world continues to be complicated, forecasts for the global tourism picture in the first months of 2021 still have not shown bright signs. The domestic market still plays a crucial role, the international tourism market needs longer time to recover even when the epidemic ends. Therefore, Viet Nam tourism has also prepared to enter the new year 2021 with determination and efforts to find a suitable direction. In 2021, the tourism industry has defined the motto ” Link, Act and Develop”, which continues to focus on restoring and developing domestic tourism. To overcome difficulties in this context as well as development orientations for the coming years, Viet Nam tourism needs to focus on a number of issues such as: Restructuring the tourist market in a sustainable and effective direction; targeting high-quality, long-stay, high-spending customers; developing new products and services, linking to diversify and improve product quality suitable to each market segment; promoting public-private cooperation, regional links between localities and destinations in tourism development cooperation; digital transformation in tourism development, especially in management, business, market research, marketing and selling tourism products.

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• Vietnam defied the experts and sealed its border to keep Covid-19 out. It worked.

How the country has kept coronavirus deaths to just 35, and grew its economy in 2020.

by Julia Belluz

With reporting from Hanoi by Thuy Do and Giap Nguyen ; Photographs by Linh Pham for Vox

This story is one in our six-part series The Pandemic Playbook. Explore all the stories here .

Every January or February, Le The Linh and his wife pack their children into their car and drive 80 miles to visit family in Haiphong, a port city east of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, for Lunar New Year. But this time, as they reached the last stretch of the Hanoi-Haiphong Highway, a police officer approached and pointed them toward a group of guards in face masks under a makeshift tent. It was one of 16 checkpoints erected around Haiphong to control travel into and out of the city ahead of the Tet Festival holiday.

They joined a lineup of other travelers, nervously waiting for their turn in the rain. When they reached the front, the officials asked for proof of their travel plans, residency, and Covid-19 status.

“Don’t worry!” Linh exclaimed tensely. He could show, with his identity card, that they lived in an area that had no coronavirus cases recently.

The family was among the lucky ones let through. Travelers from areas near Haiphong that had recently recorded Covid-19 cases got turned away; a group of young people on motorbikes who tried to circumvent the checkpoint were arrested ; still others chose not to travel at all, opting to meet family over FaceTime or Zalo (Vietnam’s answer to WhatsApp).

As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quickly proliferated — they were the second-most-common policy governments adopted to combat Covid-19. According to one review , never in recorded history has global travel been curbed in “such an extreme manner”: a reduction of approximately 65 percent in the first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports , travel bubbles , and a new round of measures to keep virus variants at bay , a maze of confusing, ever-changing restrictions remains firmly in place.

But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, a one-party communist state with a GDP per capita of $2,700 . The Haiphong checkpoints timed for Tet were the equivalent of closing off Los Angeles to Americans ahead of Thanksgiving — within a country that was already nearly hermetically sealed. Last March, the government canceled all inbound commercial flights for months on end, making it almost impossible to fly in, even for Vietnamese residents.

Today, flights are limited to select groups, like businesspeople or experts, from a few low-risk countries. Everybody who enters needs special government permission and must complete up to 21 days of state-monitored quarantine with PCR tests. (Positive cases are immediately isolated in hospitals, regardless of disease severity.)

This strict approach to travel, global health experts say, is directly connected to Vietnam’s seeming defeat of Covid-19. Thirty-five people have reportedly died in total, and a little more than 2,700 have been infected with the virus during three small waves that have all been quickly quashed. Even on the worst days of the pandemic, the country of 97 million has never recorded more than 110 new cases — a tiny fraction of the 68,000 daily case high in the United Kingdom, which has a population one-third smaller than Vietnam, or the record 300,000-plus cases per day only the US and India managed to tally.

Last year, Vietnam’s economy even grew 2.9 percent , defying economists’ predictions and beating China to become the top performer in Asia .

In this series, the Pandemic Playbook , Vox is exploring the Covid-19 strategies used by six nations. Vietnam’s travel restrictions — supported by other measures, including enforced quarantining and contact tracing — help explain the country’s apparent mastery over the virus. And while the political leverage of a single-party government might have helped Vietnam respond faster and more unilaterally than others, “I don’t think this is simply about totalitarianism versus Western democracies,” said Kelley Lee, a Simon Fraser University global health professor who has been studying the impact of travel restrictions .

That’s why Vietnam is now among a few countries upending the global health community’s “almost religious belief that travel restrictions are bad,” said Lawrence Gostin , a Georgetown University global health law professor who helped write the international law governing how countries should deal with outbreaks.

“I have now realized,” Gostin added, “that our belief about travel restrictions was just that — a belief. It was evidence-free.”

Covid-19 changed the thinking about travel restrictions in a pandemic

At a time when people still thought diseases originated with imbalances in the “four humors” and doctors routinely used treatments like bloodletting, governments tried to manage travel to prevent outbreaks. In 1377 , quarantine measures were introduced in Dubrovnik , on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, to keep out sailors potentially carrying the bubonic plague .

The law stipulated that anyone from “plague-infested areas shall not enter [Dubrovnik] or its district unless they spend a month on the islet of Mrkan ... for the purpose of disinfection.” For land travelers , the disinfection period lasted even longer — 40 days.

But in the age of mass travel and globalization, it seemed virtually impossible — counterproductive, even — for cities or countries to isolate themselves. The mantra in global health became “ diseases know no borders .” Just before the pandemic, 2019 was a record year for tourist arrivals. The travel and tourism sector had generated a tenth, or US $8.9 trillion , of global GDP. “It [was like] the cat’s out of the bag,” Gostin said.

Many of the measures countries tried in recent years, after the first SARS virus emerged in 2002 — including banning flights or visas for particular cities or countries, and screening for disease at airports — didn’t seem to deliver much protection.

Research on SARS , Ebola , and the seasonal flu found these targeted restrictions merely delayed infections and carried a slew of social and economic costs. They unfairly punished the economies of places that were unlucky enough to be plagued by disease, interfered with the global flows of people and goods, drove infections underground, and made it hard for aid workers and supplies to reach those who urgently needed them.

I knew these costs intimately. I grew up in Toronto, where a rare travel advisory imposed on the city by the World Health Organization in the wake of the first SARS outbreak cratered tourism to the entire province — so much so that the Rolling Stones eventually intervened with a charity concert (dubbed “SARSStock”). The measures also failed to avert outbreaks. According to a Canadian government report , putting arriving passengers through health assessments and thermal scanners didn’t root out a single case.

During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic and early in the Covid-19 pandemic, I co-wrote popular stories detailing this evidence and arguing against the use of such restrictions. And I wasn’t alone.

Bill Gates pointed out that then-President Donald Trump’s approach to Covid-19 travel bans probably made the US epidemic worse. The WHO’s International Health Regulations , an international law governing 196 countries’ responses to outbreaks, says countries should “avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade” and follow the WHO’s expert advice. With every global health emergency declared after SARS, the WHO has not recommended travel restrictions .

At the same time, speaking out against travel bans had become synonymous with opposing nationalism and wall-building, said Lee. “There were these progressive, human rights values that were upheld by not using travel measures.”

But it’s now clear that the well-meaning advice and previous research findings didn’t match up with the situation the world was facing in early 2020. The new virus was different — more contagious and harder to stop. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted prior to the onset of symptoms, if they ever occur — while with SARS and Ebola, for example, people are only contagious when they are very ill or symptomatic.

The new coronavirus contagion inspired drastic measures. After China locked down Wuhan in January 2020, a move many called “ draconian ,” countries around the world scrambled and experimented with their own travel restrictions.

Only a few, though, did something that “seemed unfathomable” prior to the pandemic, said University of Hong Kong public health professor Karen Grépin: They completely closed their borders. It was an approach experts had no evidence for. “No one [had] modeled out a scenario in which borders would be shut,” she said, and stay shut.

Yet that’s essentially what happened in Vietnam — and in a few states or regions, mostly islands including Taiwan and New Zealand, that have virtually eliminated the virus.

The Pandemic Playbook Vox explores the successes — and setbacks — in six nations as they fought Covid-19. Our reporting is supported by a grant from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund .

• South Korea’s Covid-19 success story started with failure
• Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back.
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• How Senegal stretched its health care system to stop Covid-19
• How the US won the economic recovery

Vietnam started building a “wall” to the world in January

Early last year, when the US and European countries still focused on keeping out travelers from places with known Covid-19 cases, Vietnam closed its borders to the world.

It was the culmination of months of escalating travel restrictions. On January 3, the same day China reported a mysterious cluster of viral pneumonia cases to the WHO, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health issued a directive to increase disease control measures on the border with China . By the end of January, Vietnam’s then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc banned all flights to and from Wuhan and other areas where the virus was spreading in China and shut off every transport link between the two countries, making it the first place in Southeast Asia to close out Chinese travelers.

By mid-March, Vietnam suspended visas for all foreigners and then stopped all commercial flights. Only diplomats, citizens, and other officials could get in or out on repatriation flights, and they needed authorization from the government to enter.

Limited air travel has now resumed with other low-risk neighbors — such as South Korea , Taiwan, and Japan — but only for Vietnamese people and foreign businesspeople and experts. And while Vietnamese nationals can cross land borders from Laos or Cambodia , everybody who does get into the country — by air, land, or sea — has to submit to PCR tests and wait out a mandatory 14- to 21-day quarantine period under state supervision in a military-run facility or designated hotel.

So where Western countries introduced travel restrictions late, targeted their measures at countries with confirmed Covid-19 cases (or variants now), made quarantine optional or didn’t enforce it, and allowed loopholes (like excluding certain groups from travel restrictions, or letting people arriving over land avoid quarantine), Vietnam walled itself in. While Western countries continue to roll measures back whenever case counts come down , Vietnam has kept its wall up — even during periods when the country recorded zero new coronavirus cases.

“This is the lesson about border measures that’s changed,” Grépin said. “The value of border restrictions goes up the fewer cases you have.”

The restrictions also appear to work best if they’re implemented when they most seem like overkill, said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologist Mark Jit . That is, before (or after) community transmission takes place, he added.

“The natural thing is to think, ‘When we have a big problem, there are many Covid cases, that’s the point when we need to start doing a lot of things.’ But for travel restrictions — these are the solution to stop the problem from happening in the first place,” Jit explained. “It seems obvious in retrospect, but it’s very paradoxical.”

Vietnam saw China’s epidemic as a threat right away

So why did Vietnam take this early and comprehensive approach when so many other countries didn’t? The short answer: The country’s fraught relationship and porous border with China — which put it at higher risk for outbreaks — may have been its savior.

“[The] two countries taking the quickest action are Taiwan and Vietnam — they shared the same reasons: geographical proximity to and distrust in China,” explained Nguyen Xuan Thanh, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Group, which is composed of experts who counsel the government on economic development strategy and policy. (Vietnam may have had information that other countries didn’t early on: A cybersecurity firm, FireEye , has said that since at least January , Vietnamese hackers spied on the Chinese government to collect intelligence about Covid-19 — reports the government has denied.)

Whatever the reason, officials in Vietnam didn’t entertain the possibility that the coronavirus was just like the seasonal flu, nor did they consider herd immunity. When China locked down Wuhan last January and bought other countries time to react, Vietnam was one of only a handful of countries that used that time wisely.

“Outside of the Asia-Pacific region, most of the world did very little to prepare for the real possibility that this virus was about to spread globally,” Grépin said. In January, the Vietnamese government set up a national task force specialized in handling Covid-19, headed by the deputy prime minister, and defined a “double goal” of combating the virus and growing the economy.

The country’s officials and Communist Party made battling Covid-19 a patriotic act. “Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy,” the prime minister said in a government meeting last January.

They transmitted health messages to the public using creative tactics , like texts to mobile phones or a viral pop song about hand-washing. They ramped up testing (starting in January 2020) and shortly thereafter began checking even asymptomatic people for the virus. By the end of last year, Vietnam was processing 1,000 tests per Covid-19 case , compared to 12.8 in the US or 21.7 in the UK.

Contact tracing became so widespread that the population now speaks the language of epidemiologists: It’s not unusual to hear Vietnamese people refer to the “F1” through “F5” system — how contact tracers denote a person’s proximity to an “F0,” or index case. (And, yes, where Western governments largely abandoned contact tracing or didn’t even seriously attempt it, Vietnam continues to ferret out potential cases by testing all F1s — a patient zero’s immediate contacts — and quarantining them in a state facility, while also asking F2s to quarantine at home.)

When a single person tests positive, it can trigger a targeted lockdown , “isolating a large area when the fire is big, isolating a small area when the fire is small,” Mai Tien Dung, the chair of the Office of the Government, said.

In practice, this meant that last February, just as Lunar New Year travel and Vietnam’s third wave was picking up, a Hanoi apartment block, where more than 1,000 people live, closed down one evening after a woman tested positive for the virus. The entrances were barricaded and guarded by police as hundreds of residents spilled out, masked and social distancing, waiting for a free Covid-19 test.

Only those who tested negative were allowed to leave, and results took at least six hours to come in — a fact that frustrated those who weren’t prepared to spend the night, like gym staff members. By the next morning, everyone who had been tested got a negative result, and the barricades were removed — but everybody living on the two floors around the index patient was asked to quarantine for two weeks.

“Politicians make decisions based on the pressure from the society and inner political system. Vietnam had no such pressure.”

Vietnam also bet that the early overreaction, including closing down international borders, might save the domestic economy and prevent the health system from becoming overwhelmed, Thanh said. Just before SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in China, Vietnam ranked 73 out of 195 countries on epidemic response and mitigation, according to the Global Health Security Index from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (The US, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 after the UK; the top 10 included the Netherlands and Brazil.)

Vietnam had another vulnerability to contend with. “The reality [is] that Vietnam does not have enough budget to sacrifice the economy and support businesses and individuals who had to cease operation,” Thanh said.

More than a year later, Vietnam’s success with keeping case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths low laid bare the arrogance and faulty assumptions that went into determining which countries would win or lose in their battles with the virus. With the exception of short-lived, targeted lockdowns, life in Vietnam today largely resembles the Before Times in a way many Westerners can only envy. People go to bars, share drinks with friends, and enjoy live music. Restaurants and cafes are open. Children attend school and see their grandparents in person.

The population never experienced the disorientation, economic pain, and mental health toll of rolling national lockdowns. Hospitals never buckled under the strain of masses of coronavirus patients. Kids didn’t miss a year of school. (There was a brief nationwide social distancing order last April when all schools were shut for three weeks.)

Vietnam is also one of a handful of countries whose economies grew in 2020 — the same year the country introduced three trade deals and saw per capita income rise. “At the beginning of the crisis, if you asked an economist what would happen here, most of us were pessimistic because of the [cutting off of] connections to the rest of the world,” said Jacques Morisset, the World Bank’s lead economist for Vietnam.

But because the virus was quickly contained internally, the domestic economy rebounded, just as Thanh and his colleagues had hoped. Manufacturing continued, and exports grew by 6.5 percent — not far off from the usual export turnover increase of 8 percent, according to Thanh.

That growth more than made up for losses in the shrinking tourism and transport sectors. The successes also helped foster public support for the anti-virus measures. Whenever the tourism or travel industries lobbied for open borders, the economic pressure didn’t crack the borders open. According to a survey released in December by the UN Development Program and the Mekong Development Research Institute, 89 percent of Vietnamese respondents said they supported the government’s approach — higher than the global average of 67 percent.

“Politicians make decisions based on the pressure from the society and inner political system,” Thanh said. “Vietnam had no such pressure. Vietnamese people supported the government to continue having strict measures.”

Vietnam’s state security apparatus bolstered its public health response

In a one-party system like Vietnam’s, there are few avenues to voice opposition. This political context has arguably strengthened certain anti-virus measures, like the country’s extensive contact tracing program. The Communist Party has for decades employed “surveillance, physical monitoring, and censorship to manage the population,” Foreign Policy reported in May last year . These “tools of Communist Party control ... have now been repurposed in the service of health protection.”

Local officials and busybody neighbors also exert social pressure on others to conform, said Carl Thayer , a Southeast Asia specialist and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales. “Vietnam has block wardens, village wardens, household registration, and inquisitive locals that intrude on people’s lives. They have a society where people report people.”

The government can and does share details with the public about positive cases (including the age, gender, and neighborhood where the person lives, as well as a flight number for travelers), sometimes leaking additional information for use as cautionary tales.

Perhaps the most infamous example: Vietnam’s case number 17 , a socialite who traveled to Italy without disclosing it at the border and faced severe public shaming. Her Covid-19 experience was the subject of government press conferences, and social media users tracked her down. Her story scared people who didn’t want to be responsible for others’ infections, said Hanoi-based American health economist Sarah Bales. “Everybody knows her,” she said. “She was notorious, and people hated her.”

This heavy-handedness would not be tolerated in many Western countries, where concerns about personal freedom and privacy have often trumped public health throughout the pandemic, Thayer said. The Foreign Policy authors also pointed out that the country’s human rights violations have repeatedly been overlooked in examinations of Vietnam’s Covid-19 response: “While the international community has criticized Vietnam’s security apparatus in the past for violating its citizens’ rights, the country has received near-unanimous praise for its successful handling of the current pandemic. But the tools used are the same.”

Yet to reduce Vietnam’s Covid-19 success to its system of authoritarian governance is a mistake, Lee said, pointing out that democracies, like South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand, have employed similar tactics as Vietnam. And analysts have repeatedly struggled to link a country’s political system to its Covid-19 success .

Vietnam’s is “a very scientific approach and has merit on its own no matter which regime chooses to apply these types of measures,” said Bales, who has lived and worked in Vietnam since 1992. “They did extensive contact tracing. ... They did massive testing. They closed down the provinces so if there was transmission, it would stay local. Most people are living a normal life, and the few people who have been exposed or infected have to bear the brunt of quarantine, testing, and isolation.”

Watching the pandemic unfold in the US and Europe, Bales was among several Vietnam-based Westerners who told Vox they believe the privacy and personal liberty costs during the pandemic were worth the benefits of living a relatively free life.

“You don’t have to worry and be afraid like you do in the West — where every time you go out, it must be stressful [wondering] about if you’re exposed, and if you’re exposed, will you have long Covid or die,” Bales said. “On a day-to-day basis, I don’t worry.”

When Vietnam’s wall comes down

One morning in early March, a taxicab pulled up to the international terminal at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport . The last time the driver took someone there was half a year ago, he said, when a Vietnamese customer wanted to fly to Taiwan for work. Today, though, a repatriation flight had just landed — one of 16 arriving in Vietnam so far this year.

Inside, the airport is a skeleton of its former self. There are no crowds waiting to greet friends and family. Cafes and restaurants are closed, and the terminal halls are quiet and dark. A group of the newly arrived passengers waiting at the luggage conveyer belt look distinctly like they’ve come from a biosafety hazard lab: wearing blue full-body protection suits and masks, provided by Vietnam Airlines staff when they boarded their flight in Paris.

The only loud noise echoing across the terminal is a voice broadcasting instructions for what the passengers need to do next: Everybody will be transported to state-supervised quarantine facilities. One by one, their names and year of birth are called out before they walk to buses to be ferried off. When they arrive, they’ll be tested for Covid-19 — and, if positive, forwarded directly to the hospital for isolation and treatment.

“We will try our best to organize so that families, parents, and children can stay together,” the voice on the speaker says, “but with friends, we may not be able to do so. We are sorry for that.”

This scene feels unimaginable in Western cities like New York or Paris — but so did ubiquitous mask-wearing and lockdowns over a year ago. With travel set to boom as the pandemic eases, and the next outbreaks on the horizon, I wondered what the rest of the world should take away from Vietnam.

Lee — and the other global health researchers I spoke to — advised caution. This pandemic showed travel restrictions can be helpful, but we should not make the same mistake we did in the past and assume what worked for the coronavirus will work for other health threats. “We don’t want countries to automatically control borders whenever a cluster of atypical pneumonia occurs,” Lee said. “Not all outbreaks require borders to be closed.”

Shutting borders comes with costs — all the people who lost travel and tourism jobs in Vietnam over the past year, or those who have been stranded far from home. Because of the very limited access to repatriation flights , thousands are waiting for their applications to get approved, and a black market for repatriation flight access sprang up. The wealthy agree to pay as much as $10,000 US for seats, while some have been scammed .

“Even if we conclude that travel restrictions and trade restrictions and migration restrictions — under certain targeted circumstances — can be an effective part of the package,” Gostin said, “we still have to take into account the fact that by implementing [them], you’re causing harms in other regards.”

Grépin also warned that the border closures countries like Vietnam put in place were “very extreme,” and pointed out that less intensive measures might prevent cases and carry fewer costs. Places like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, for example, have shown that “if you quarantine incoming travelers you can limit public health risk without border closure,” she said. But she also noted the approach isn’t foolproof. Hong Kong, for example, is currently struggling with the virus because of its travel links with India: A single April 4 flight from New Delhi has led to more than 50 Covid-19 cases .

This raises another challenge: Travel restrictions are difficult to calibrate correctly, said Steven Hoffman , a global health professor and the director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab. “If we are going to make use of [total border closures,] we need to [acknowledge] the fact that it might be implemented for events that don’t go pandemic,” he said. “And there’s something like 200 events every year that could go pandemic.”

For now, as Vietnam weighs the benefits of Covid-19 vaccine passports and how to resume international travel , one thing is certain: The walls the country has built up will come down. People will hop on trains, planes, and buses, bringing their germs with them. The world will get smaller again, and proximity will be “more determined on the basis of the quantity of travel connections than kilometers,” Hoffman added.

Vietnam’s early, quick response to Covid-19 was inspired, in part, by the country’s shared border with China. But what other countries need to learn is that, in a globalized world, they share borders with China, too.

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Tourists can return to Vietnam soon - if they visit this island

Sep 13, 2021 • 3 min read

Vietnam will trial the controlled return of tourists to Phu Quoc ©Shutterstock

Vietnam will pilot a plan to reopen the popular tourist island of Phu Quoc to fully vaccinated foreign visitors from autumn, according to a government statement .

Similar to Thailand's 'Phuket Sandbox' scheme , Vietnam's six-month pilot program will see tourism restricted to Phu Quoc (an island off the country's southwestern coast near Cambodia ) and implemented in phases in order to minimize the risk of transmission. The first phase will run for three months and will see about 2000 to 3000 visitors per month travel to a Phu Quoc on chartered flights. Not all of the island will be open at this time and visitors will be taken to designated accommodation and entertainment sites.

The second phase will see visitor numbers increase to 5000 to 10,000 for another three months, with passengers permitted to travel on commercial flights. More of the island will have reopened by that stage to allow people to experience the white-sand beaches, dense tropical jungles, food markets and laid-back resorts of Phu Quoc on a larger scale. The pilot program coincides with Phu Quoc's dry season, which typically runs from November until March.

Read more: Do you need a visa to go to Vietnam?

"The purpose of this programe is to gradually restore the international tourism market and the tourism industry while promoting Vietnam as a safe and attractive destination with effective pandemic prevention and control measures," officials said in a statement .

Visitors will need to show proof of full vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 to visit Phu Quoc, in addition to presenting a negative result from a PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before flying. According to CNN , Phu Quoc has not reported any community infections and it has sufficient quarantine and public health services to deal with any outbreaks.

To facilitate the pilot program, the tourist board said the Vietnam Safe Travel app has been updated with an English language option. It will also have a vaccination certification system that should allow passengers to upload their COVID-19 so that the information can be easily scanned at the border.

Until recently, Vietnam was one of the world’s top performers at fighting the coronavirus. But the Delta variant and a shortage of vaccine supplies have caused a surge in infections. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are currently under lockdown, and NPR reports that only 4% of the population has been fully vaccinated. Although officials expect 50 million doses to be delivered by the end of September as they double down on efforts to speed up the vaccination campaign.

Vietnam closed its tourism industry in March 2020 to shut out COVID-19. Borders have been sealed tight since, and only Vietnamese nationals, foreigners on diplomatic or official business, and highly skilled workers have been permitted to enter Vietnam.

Those border rules will be eased at Phu Quoc but it is not yet clear when Vietnam will open the rest of the country up for tourism. An exact date for the launch of the Phu Quoc pilot program has not been announced either but it is likely to begin in November. This article will be updated when more information becomes available. 

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Emerging COVID-19 success story: Vietnam's commitment to containment

Vietnam is one country which has responded well to the coronavirus pandemic. how did they do so in-country experts provide key insights..

This is a guest post by Todd Pollack (i), Guy Thwaites (ii), Maia Rabaa (ii), Marc Choisy (ii), Rogier van Doorn (ii), Le Van Tan (ii), Duong Huy Luong (iiia), Dang Quang Tan (iiib), Tran Dai Quang (iiib), Phung Cong Dinh (iv), Ngu Duy Nghia (v), Tran Anh Tu (v), La Ngoc Quang (vi), Nguyen Cong Khanh (v), Dang Duc Anh (v), Tran Nhu Duong (v), Sang Minh Le (vii), Thai Pham Quang (v), Vu Duong (viii), and Exemplars in Global Health (see institutional affiliations 1 ).

This article was published earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the latest published data at that time.

We now source data on confirmed cases and deaths from the WHO. You can find the most up-to-date data for all countries in our Coronavirus Data Explorer .

Read the previous version of this article published 30 June 2020.

A previous version of this article covered the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam from January to June 2020.

Introduction

As of December 31, 2020, Vietnam had reported 1,465 laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 35 deaths. 2 This success has been attributed to several key factors, including a well-developed public health system, a decisive central government, and a proactive containment strategy based on comprehensive testing, tracing, and quarantining.

Detect:  Vietnam has taken a targeted approach to testing, scaling it up in areas with community transmission. Contact tracing is comprehensive, with three degrees of contacts traced for each positive case.

Contain:  As a result of its detection process, hundreds of thousands of people, including international travelers and those who had close contact with people who tested positive, were placed in quarantine centers run by the government, greatly reducing both household and community transmission. Hot spots with demonstrated community transmission, including Da Nang during its outbreak in July and August 2020, were locked down immediately, and the government communicated frequently with citizens to keep them informed and involved in the public health response.

One of the reasons Vietnam was able to act so quickly and keep the case count so low is that the country experienced a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 and human cases of avian influenza between 2004 and 2010. As a result, Vietnam had both the experience and infrastructure to take appropriate action. Vietnam makes many key containment decisions in a matter of days, which may take weeks for governments in other countries to make. Although Vietnam is a highly centralized country, a number of key decisions were made at the local level, which also contributed to the swift response.

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam joined Exemplars and our partners to share perspective on Vietnam’s success against COVID-19.

Country overview.

Since the 1980s, Vietnam, a country of nearly 100 million people, has undergone a significant economic transformation. The adoption of economic reforms known as the Doi Moi policies in the mid-1980s turned a centrally planned economy into a socialist-oriented market economy, setting Vietnam on a path to its current middle-income status.

Vietnam has invested heavily in its health care system, with public health expenditures per capita increasing an average rate of 9 percent per year between 2000 and 2016. 3 These investments have paid off with rapidly improving health indicators. For example, infant mortality and maternal mortality decreased by more than half between 1990 and 2018. 4

Vietnam has a history of successfully managing pandemics: it was the second country after China to face SARS and, after 63 cases and five deaths, it was the first country declared SARS-free by the World Health Organization (WHO). 5 Many interventions pioneered by Vietnam during the SARS epidemic are being used to respond to COVID-19. Similarly, its experience with epidemic preparedness and response measures may have led to greater willingness among people in the country to comply with a central public health response.

In the wake of the SARS epidemic, Vietnam increased investments in its public health infrastructure, developing a national public health emergency operations center and a national public health surveillance system. 6 The national center and four regional centers run exercises and trainings to prepare key stakeholders in government for outbreaks, and they have managed preparedness and response efforts for measles, Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and Zika. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has continued to incorporate new lessons and regularly conducts intra-action and after-action reviews. 7

Vietnam has long maintained robust systems to collect and aggregate public data, and in 2009 it shifted to a nearly real-time, web-based system. Since 2016, hospitals are required to report notifiable diseases within 24 hours to a central database, ensuring that the Ministry of Health can track epidemiological developments across the country. 8  In collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vietnam implemented an innovative “event-based” surveillance program in 2018. Event-based surveillance empowers members of the public, including teachers, pharmacists, religious leaders, and even traditional medicine healers, to report public health events. The goal is to identify clusters of people who have similar symptoms that might suggest an outbreak is emerging. 9

Outbreak Timeline

Vietnam’s first case of COVID-19 was reported on January 23, 2020. A week later, Vietnam formed a national steering committee that initially met every two days to coordinate the country’s “whole of government” strategy. 10  In Vinh Phuc, a northern province about an hour’s drive from Hanoi, provincial leaders locked down Son Loi commune, isolated patients and their close contacts in quarantine camps for at least 14 days, and activated community-wide screening at the first evidence of community spread. 11

A second wave of cases, imported from new hot spots in Europe and the United States, was discovered on March 6. Within a day after the first case of the second wave was detected, the government had tracked and isolated about 200 close contacts of those infected. 12

As of May 1, a hundred days into the outbreak, Vietnam had confirmed just 270 cases, despite extensive testing, and with no community transmission since April 15. 13  Vietnam began loosening restrictions in May, including resuming domestic travel across the country.

On July 25, Vietnam marked 99 days without any community transmission, until an outbreak occurred in the city of Da Nang, a city with a population of more than 1 million that receives about 8 million tourists annually. Da Nang was especially crowded in July because people were eager to travel after a tense spring, and the government promoted domestic tourism as a way to compensate for the economic losses from international tourism. What started as nosocomial transmission quickly spilled over into the community, and during the last week of July new incident cases increased by about 30 percent, the fastest growth rate since the beginning of the epidemic. 14

Between July 25 and September 8, 551 locally transmitted cases were reported from 15 cities and provinces across the country, with Da Nang and nearby Quang Nam Province most affected. Approximately 98 percent of cases were either related to major hospitals in Da Nang or had a history of visiting Da Nang. (From July 1 to July 27, it was estimated that more than 1.5 million people returned from Da Nang to other provinces of Vietnam, of which 41,000 had visited Da Nang Hospital.) A temporary hospital for treatment of suspected and mild cases was built, and two other hospitals were designated for COVID-19 treatment and put under the direction of a special committee from the Ministry of Health. 14

To bring the outbreak under control, Vietnam turned to the same strategies that had been successful in ending earlier outbreaks: targeted lockdowns, travel bans, business closures, mass quarantines, and widespread testing. As of September 10, 61,968 people were being monitored, 998 were quarantined in health care facilities, 15,619 were quarantined in centralized facilities, and 45,351 were self-quarantined at home. 15

Since containing the Da Nang outbreak, Vietnam has continued reopening plans, although the country borders have remained closed except for specific circumstances, and the 14-day centralized quarantine policy continues to apply to most incoming Vietnamese and international travelers.

In late January 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology met with virologists to encourage the development of diagnostic tests. Starting in early February, publicly funded institutions in Vietnam developed at least four locally made COVID-19 tests that were validated by the Ministry of Defense and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. Subsequently, private companies including Viet A and Thai Duong offered capacity to manufacture the test kits. Most confirmation laboratories where these tests are analyzed use in-house versions of WHO protocol, allowing tests to be widely administered without long wait times.

Development timelines of diagnostic test kits:

• February 7, 2020: Test kit developed by Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Testing method: RT-LAMP (reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification). Cost: US$15. Testing time: 70 minutes.
• March 3, 2020: Test kit developed by Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Testing method: real-time RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction). Cost: less than US$21. Testing time: 80 minutes from receiving a sample.
• March 5, 2020: Test kits developed by Military Medical University, commercialized by Viet A. Cost: US$19–$25. Testing method: RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR. Testing time: over one hour but has testing capacity four times the number of samples as the CDC kit. 16  This test, which was responsible for up to 80% of testing in Vietnam during the global stock-out, was certified by the European Union and other authorities, and Viet A has received orders from 20 countries and territories. 17
• April 28, 2020: Production and launch of the RT-LAMP kit and RT-PCR kit 18  commercialized by Thai Duong company.

Testing capacity also ramped up quickly, from just two testing sites nationwide in late January to 120 by May. As of October 22, 137 laboratories were capable of testing by RT-PCR, with a maximum daily capacity of 51,000 tests. 19 Of these laboratories, 62 are designated as screening laboratories and 75 as confirmatory laboratories. Plans are underway to further expand laboratory testing to include use of GeneXpert machines within the lung hospital system. 19

Given its low case numbers, the country decided on a strategy of using testing to identify clusters and prevent wider transmission. When community transmission was detected (even just one case), the government reacted quickly with contact tracing, commune-level lockdowns, and widespread local testing to ensure no cases were missed. However, the number of tests administered increased during the Da Nang outbreak. Between July 23 and September 24, more than 700,000 tests were conducted, and those who had visited high-risk areas in Da Nang (as identified by the Ministry of Health) were required to fill out a health declaration form via mobile app and notify local health authorities for sample collection and testing. 20 From September 3 to September 10, a third of all households in Da Nang—72,492 households—were tested, along with 13,776 students and staff taking part in graduation exams. All were negative. 21

Contact Tracing

Contact tracing and quarantine are the key parts of containment. Vietnam’s contact tracing strategy stands out as uniquely comprehensive—it is based on tracing degrees of contact from F0 (the infected person) through F1 (those who have had close contact with F0 or are suspected of being infected) and F2 (close contact with F1), and all the way up to F5.

There is a very small window of time in which to track and quarantine contacts before they become infectious. The incubation period between contact with the virus and start of symptoms is on average five days. Infectiousness begins two days before symptom onset. Therefore, only three days are available from the point of contact with a case to find and quarantine contacts before they could infect others. It is critical to move fast, mobilize the contract-tracing apparatus, and locate the contacts.

The process in Vietnam works as follows:

• Once a patient with COVID-19 is identified (F0), local public health officials, with support from health professionals, security officers, the military, and other civil servants, work with the patient to identify who they might have been in contact with and infected in the past 14 days.
• All close contacts (F1), defined as people who have been within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of or have prolonged contact of 30 or more minutes with a confirmed COVID-19 case, are identified and tested for the virus.
• If F1s test positive for the virus, they are placed in isolation at a hospital—all COVID-19 patients are hospitalized at no cost in Vietnam, regardless of symptoms.
• If F1s do not test positive, they are quarantined at a government-run quarantine center for 14 days.
• Close contacts of the previously identified close contacts (F2s) are required to self-isolate at home for 14 days.

One noteworthy aspect of Vietnam’s approach is that it identified and quarantined suspected cases based on their epidemiological risk of infection (if they had contact with a confirmed case or traveled to a COVID-19 affected country), not whether they exhibited symptoms. The high proportion of cases that never develop symptoms (43 percent) suggests that this approach may have been a key contributor to limiting community transmission at an early stage. 23

For SARS, a strategy of identifying and isolating symptomatic people was effective because the virus was infectious only after symptoms started. With SARS-CoV-2, however, such a strategy would be inadequate, since infectiousness can occur before the onset or in the absence of symptoms.

From January 23 to May 1, 2020, over 200,000 people spent time in a quarantine facility, 23 but the numbers increased dramatically after the Da Nang outbreak. To enable contract tracing of the more than 1.5 million people linked to the Da Nang outbreak, the government mobilized resources to localities with poor health systems. 14 Ho Chi Minh City conducted contact tracing of everyone from Da Nang and stratified them into groups. People with respiratory symptoms or those exposed to the three epicenter hospitals in Da Nang were placed in a centralized quarantine facility and tested; others were isolated at home and monitored by local commune health staff.

As of December 31, 2020, a total of 10,242,896 people had been placed under quarantine: 211,983 in health care facilities, 4,296,302 in centralized quarantine facilities, and 5,734,611 at home. 25

On March 10, the Ministry of Health worked with telecom companies to launch NCOVI, an app that helps citizens create a “neighborhood watch system” that complements official contact tracing efforts and may have helped to slow transmission of the disease, although the app has drawn criticism from some privacy advocates. NCOVI includes a map of detected cases and clusters of infections and allows users to declare their own health status, report suspected cases, and watch real-time movement of people placed under quarantine. 27 In mid-April, Vietnamese cybersecurity firm Bkav launched Bluezone, a Bluetooth-enabled mobile app that notifies users if they have been within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of a confirmed case within 14 days. When users are notified of exposure, they are encouraged to contact public health officials immediately. 28 The Ministry of Information and Communications aimed to reach 60 percent of the population with the app and worked with network operators to promote it. By August 20, the application had exceeded 20 million downloads. 14

Infection Prevention and Control in Health Care Settings

Preventing transmission to health care workers, and from health care workers to the community, is another important containment strategy. During the SARS outbreak in 2003–2004, dozens of Vietnamese health care workers were infected; apart from the index patient, everyone in Vietnam who died from SARS was a doctor or a nurse. 29 Over the past ten years, however, Vietnam has significantly improved hospital infection control by investing in organizational systems, building physical facilities, buying equipment and supplies, and training health workers.

In preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam further strengthened hospital procedures to prevent infection in health care settings. On February 19, 2020, the Ministry of Health issued national Guidelines for Infection Prevention and Control for COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Disease in Healthcare Establishments. This document provides comprehensive guidance to hospitals on screening, admission and isolation of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, establishment of isolation areas in hospitals, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, waste management, collection, preservation, packing and transport of patient samples, prevention of laboratory-acquired infection of COVID-19, handling of remains of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, and guidance for COVID-19 prevention for family members and visitors.

Regardless, Da Nang General Hospital was the epicenter of the Da Nang outbreak, with at least 251 cases reported among patients, caregivers, and staff. In August, the hospital was locked down. 14

Targeted Lockdowns

Vietnam implemented mass quarantines in suspected hot spots based on evolving epidemiological evidence over time (see Table 1). Vietnam entered a nationwide lockdown on April 1. Initially, the lockdown was set for 15 days, but it was extended to 21 days in 28 out of 63 provinces. During the Da Nang outbreak in August, 10 provinces were locked down.

Mass Gathering, Travel, and Mobility Restrictions

Even before the first cases in the country were confirmed, Vietnam took early steps to implement closures, require masks, and limit mobility for citizens and international travelers. Most other countries waited to make these types of decisions until numbers were much higher.

Inbound passengers from Wuhan, China, received additional screening before Vietnam’s first case was reported. Visas for Chinese tourists were no longer issued as of January 30, 2020, just a week after the first case was confirmed. At the end of the ten-day Lunar New Year holiday on January 31—and with only five confirmed in-country cases—the government mandated that all schools nationwide remain closed. Masks were recommended in early February, before WHO or most countries did so, and were made mandatory nationwide in mid-March.

Flights to and from China were suspended on February 1 and trains were canceled shortly thereafter, on February 5. These restrictions were implemented when cases were in the single digits. Flights from the Schengen Area—26 countries in Europe—and the United Kingdom were suspended on March 15 (after the second wave of cases, traced to people who had been traveling in Europe), and all visa issuance was discontinued on March 18.

In early February, Vietnam began its practice of placing international arrivals from COVID-19 affected countries in large government-run quarantine centers for 14 days. Vietnam began using the centers for Vietnamese arrivals from China on February 4 and expanded the practice to Vietnamese arrivals from South Korea on March 1. Beginning on March 20–22, all international arrivals were placed in the quarantine centers. International flights were also diverted away from airports still used for domestic travel. For most of the past year, all international incoming commercial flights have been stopped and only people with special permission are allowed to enter the country from abroad; all travelers must quarantine for 14 days.

Clear, Consistent, Creative Public Health Messaging

While leaders in many countries downplayed the threat of COVID-19, the Vietnamese government communicated in clear, strong terms about the dangers of the illness even before the first case was reported. On January 9, the Ministry of Health first warned citizens of the threat; since then, the government has communicated frequently with the public, adding a short prevention statement to every phone call placed in the country, texting people directly, and taking advantage of Vietnam’s high use of social media—there are 64 million active Facebook users in Vietnam and 80 percent of smartphone users in Vietnam have the local social media app, Zalo, installed. 37

In late February, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health released “Ghen Co Vy,” meaning “jealous coronavirus,” a well-known pop song given new lyrics and turned into a handwashing public service announcement. 17 The institute asked Khac Hung to rewrite the lyrics and dancer Quang Dang to choreograph dance moves; the release ultimately spearheaded a dance challenge on TikTok. 38 The #Onhavanvui (#StayHomeIsFun) campaign on TikTok has had more than 8 billion views. 39 During the Da Nang outbreak, Vietnamese celebrities and social media users shared “stay strong” posts to show their support. Across the city, buildings shone with “I love Da Nang” light displays. 40

Throughout these communications, the government stayed on message. At first, it consistently used the motto: “Fighting the epidemic is like fighting against the enemy.” 41  Later, the government branded each citizen’s responsibility as “5K” (Nam Khong): (1) face mask; (2) hygiene; (3) safe distance; (4) gathering; (5) health declaration. Toward the end of 2020, with support from WHO, the Ministry of Health launched the Safe Coexistence with COVID-19 communications initiative, including a long-term online campaign, Normalize the New Normal, jointly launched by the United Nations and other international organizations in November. 21

The government was on the lookout for misinformation from the very beginning. A 2018 cybersecurity law already gave the government substantial authority in this area, but on April 14, Vietnam passed a specific decree outlining fines for people who use social media to “share false, untruthful, distorted, or slanderous information.” The police have pursued more than 200 cases since then. 42 This ordinance has generated opposition from Amnesty International and others. However, according to data from YouGov, as of December 21, 91 percent of the Vietnamese people believe the government is responding “very” or “somewhat” well. 43

Economic Impact

The pandemic is projected to cost Vietnam nearly 200,000 billion dong (US$ 9.4 billion) in revenue, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The country’s tourism sector was among the hardest hit as borders remain closed to international tourists. In typical years, Vietnam welcomes 21 million international arrivals. 44 The shops and hotels in the most upscale streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City remain empty. 45 Fruit exports fell by half between April and June 2020, with freight operators demanding two to four times the normal prices. 46

Overall, however, Vietnam is weathering the economic crisis better than many other countries. It is one of the few countries in the world currently experiencing positive GDP growth (noting that Vietnam had a high baseline GDP growth before the pandemic). The manufacturing sector was growing again by June, after five months of decline. 47

Early in the pandemic, local producers were able to capitalize on exports of PPE. France, which was severely hit by the virus, imported hundreds of millions of cloth masks from Vietnam in May. The US government purchased 4.5 million made-in-Vietnam PPE suits. In August, global demand dropped as countries around the world gradually collected themselves, leading Vietnamese mask exports to decline by a third. 40

In recent months, international flights have been opened for foreign workers, such as engineers from South Korea’s LG, who are needed to keep the economy functioning. 45 Some international investors are pushing for the country to shorten the time for compulsory isolation for foreign workers.

Vietnam’s response to COVID-19 has been exceptional, and although some of its success derives from the country’s unique context, many lessons from Vietnam are widely applicable, including the following:

• Investment in a public health infrastructure (e.g., emergency operations centers and surveillance systems) enables countries to have a head start in managing public health crises effectively. Vietnam learned lessons from SARS and avian influenza, and other countries can learn those same lessons from COVID-19.
• Early action, ranging from border closures and masks to testing and lockdowns, can curb community spread before it gets out of control.
• Thorough contact tracing can help facilitate a targeted containment strategy.
• Quarantines based on possible exposure, rather than symptoms only, can reduce asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission. Specifically, the mandatory testing and quarantining of international travelers appears to be an effective policy.
• Clear communication is crucial. A clear, consistent, and serious narrative is important throughout the crisis.
• A strong whole-of-society approach engages multisectoral stakeholders in decision-making processes and encourages cohesive participation in appropriate measures.

With the exception of the Da Nang outbreak in August, Vietnam has managed, more or less, to prevent community transmission for a full year while keeping the economy open enough to facilitate GDP growth. Even the Da Nang outbreak was contained quickly, using a combination of many of the best practices the country had developed over time. No other country of Vietnam’s size has experienced this level of success.

In-depth explainers on Exemplar countries

This framework identified three countries which provide key success stories in addressing the pandemic: South Korea, Vietnam and Germany. In these related articles, in-country experts provide key insights into how these countries achieved this.

How experts use data to identify emerging COVID-19 success stories

How can we define success stories in addressing COVID-19?

South Korea

Emerging COVID-19 success story: South Korea learned the lessons of MERS

Emerging COVID-19 success story: Germany's strong enabling environment

This article is one of a series focused on identifying and understanding Exemplars in the response to the Coronavirus pandemic. It is hosted by the Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) platform.

Exemplars in Global Health is a coalition of experts, funders, and collaborators around the globe, supported by Gates Ventures and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who share the belief that rigorously understanding global health successes can help drive better resource allocation, policy, and implementation decisions. The Exemplars in Global Health platform was created to help decision-makers around the world quickly learn how countries have solved major health and human capital challenges.

Institutional affiliations:

(i) Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

(ii) Oxford University Clinical Research Unit

(iii) Ministry of Health (Vietnam)

(iv) Ministry of Science and Technology (Vietnam)

(v) National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (Vietnam)

(vi) Hanoi University of Public Health

(vii) World Bank in Vietnam

(v) Alive & Thrive, FHI Solutions (FHI 360)

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Vietnam Ministry of Health

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A bright future for tourism in Vietnam after COVID-19

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The rapid spread of COVID-19 around the globe has caused significant damage to several industries, including tourism, which has been one of the hardest hit.

RMIT University (Vietnam) Tourism and Hospitality Management Senior Lecturer Dr Nuno F. Ribeiro said countries that have a fast recovering tourism industry post COVID-19 will be those whose governments prioritised health and wellbeing, and successfully contained the spread of the virus.

“The Vietnamese government has prioritised health and wellbeing during this epidemic, which is the most important thing in a people-intensive tourism industry,” Dr Ribeiro said.

“The local government has also supported tourism businesses with several initiatives which will be critical to allow a quick return to operations once the pandemic is resolved. This will be much easier to do rather than rebuilding an entire economic sector if no help is provided.”

Dr Ribeiro, who leads the tourism and hospitality research cluster within RMIT’s School of Business & Management, said the government’s fast and effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic may even make Vietnam the preferred travel destination in the Asia Pacific region, over countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

“For some people, travel and tourism is seen as a necessity, not a luxury. And tourists will not only travel to the most beautiful and interesting countries in the world, but primarily to the safest,” he said. “And Vietnam is doing a fantastic job in proving that it is one of the safest destinations in the world.”

In the space of only a few months, Vietnam went from millions of tourists to zero. Dr Ribeiro highlighted that this rapid decline has, and will continue to have, an enormous impact on tourism businesses, and affect the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people.

The latest initiative from Vietnam’s Prime Minister directed the State Bank of Vietnam to launch a credit support package worth 250 trillion VND (US$10.5 billion) for businesses, and the Ministry of Finance to offer 30 trillion VND (US$1.2 billion) for the same purpose, which Dr Ribeiro applauded.

“I think this is an excellent initiative, that will not only have immediate positive impacts right now, but also have positive effects in the future, not just for the tourism sector, but for the economy as a whole,” he said.

“While this truly is an unprecedented event, the history of tourism since 1945 shows us that, while tourism is vulnerable to cyclical crises, it also rebounds faster and stronger than any other economic sector.”

As an academic with more than 20 years’ experience in tourism, Dr Ribeiro believes there are some further measures available to help alleviate the negative impact of COVID-19 in Vietnam.

• Continue to coordinate a gradual and safe return to tourism operations with the relevant ministries
• Provide tax rebates for tourism businesses and encourage management not to dismiss employees, but to retrain them so they are ready to re-enter the workforce soon after the pandemic is over.
• Diversify Vietnam’s main inbound tourism markets. As this COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown, the dependency on two markets (China and South Korea) is not sustainable in the long term
• Learn from other places that have dealt with major disasters like Bali in Indonesia, or New Orleans in the United States
• Begin soft marketing campaigns using social media and advertising campaigns, aimed at potential tourists, or returning tourists who cannot visit Vietnam right now.

Story: Dr Nuno F. Ribeiro and Thuy Le

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Travel health notices, vaccines and medicines, non-vaccine-preventable diseases, stay healthy and safe.

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After Your Trip

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Check the vaccines and medicines list and visit your doctor at least a month before your trip to get vaccines or medicines you may need. If you or your doctor need help finding a location that provides certain vaccines or medicines, visit the Find a Clinic page.

• Avoid contaminated water

Leptospirosis

How most people get sick (most common modes of transmission)

• Touching urine or other body fluids from an animal infected with leptospirosis
• Swimming or wading in urine-contaminated fresh water, or contact with urine-contaminated mud
• Drinking water or eating food contaminated with animal urine
• Avoid contaminated water and soil
• Avoid floodwater

Clinical Guidance

Schistosomiasis

• Wading, swimming, bathing, or washing in contaminated freshwater streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, or untreated pools.

Avoid bug bites

Chikungunya

• Mosquito bite
• Avoid Bug Bites
• Mosquito bite
• An infected pregnant woman can spread it to her unborn baby

Airborne & droplet

Avian/bird flu.

• Being around, touching, or working with infected poultry, such as visiting poultry farms or live-animal markets
• Avoid domestic and wild poultry
• Breathing in air or accidentally eating food contaminated with the urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents
• Bite from an infected rodent
• Less commonly, being around someone sick with hantavirus (only occurs with Andes virus)
• Avoid rodents and areas where they live
• Avoid sick people

Tuberculosis (TB)

• Breathe in TB bacteria that is in the air from an infected and contagious person coughing, speaking, or singing.

Learn actions you can take to stay healthy and safe on your trip. Vaccines cannot protect you from many diseases in Vietnam, so your behaviors are important.

Eat and drink safely

Food and water standards around the world vary based on the destination. Standards may also differ within a country and risk may change depending on activity type (e.g., hiking versus business trip). You can learn more about safe food and drink choices when traveling by accessing the resources below.

• Choose Safe Food and Drinks When Traveling
• Water Treatment Options When Hiking, Camping or Traveling
• Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
• Avoid Contaminated Water During Travel

You can also visit the Department of State Country Information Pages for additional information about food and water safety.

Prevent bug bites

Bugs (like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas) can spread a number of diseases in Vietnam. Many of these diseases cannot be prevented with a vaccine or medicine. You can reduce your risk by taking steps to prevent bug bites.

What can I do to prevent bug bites?

• Cover exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats.
• Use an appropriate insect repellent (see below).
• Use permethrin-treated clothing and gear (such as boots, pants, socks, and tents). Do not use permethrin directly on skin.
• Stay and sleep in air-conditioned or screened rooms.
• Use a bed net if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors.

What type of insect repellent should I use?

• FOR PROTECTION AGAINST TICKS AND MOSQUITOES: Use a repellent that contains 20% or more DEET for protection that lasts up to several hours.
• Picaridin (also known as KBR 3023, Bayrepel, and icaridin)
• Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or para-menthane-diol (PMD)
• 2-undecanone
• Always use insect repellent as directed.

What should I do if I am bitten by bugs?

• Avoid scratching bug bites, and apply hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion to reduce the itching.
• Check your entire body for ticks after outdoor activity. Be sure to remove ticks properly.

What can I do to avoid bed bugs?

Although bed bugs do not carry disease, they are an annoyance. See our information page about avoiding bug bites for some easy tips to avoid them. For more information on bed bugs, see Bed Bugs .

For more detailed information on avoiding bug bites, see Avoid Bug Bites .

Some diseases in Vietnam—such as dengue, Zika, and filariasis—are spread by bugs and cannot be prevented with a vaccine. Follow the insect avoidance measures described above to prevent these and other illnesses.

Stay safe outdoors

If your travel plans in Vietnam include outdoor activities, take these steps to stay safe and healthy during your trip.

• Stay alert to changing weather conditions and adjust your plans if conditions become unsafe.
• Prepare for activities by wearing the right clothes and packing protective items, such as bug spray, sunscreen, and a basic first aid kit.
• Consider learning basic first aid and CPR before travel. Bring a travel health kit with items appropriate for your activities.
• If you are outside for many hours in heat, eat salty snacks and drink water to stay hydrated and replace salt lost through sweating.
• Protect yourself from UV radiation : use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, wear protective clothing, and seek shade during the hottest time of day (10 a.m.–4 p.m.).
• Be especially careful during summer months and at high elevation. Because sunlight reflects off snow, sand, and water, sun exposure may be increased during activities like skiing, swimming, and sailing.
• Very cold temperatures can be dangerous. Dress in layers and cover heads, hands, and feet properly if you are visiting a cold location.

Stay safe around water

• Swim only in designated swimming areas. Obey lifeguards and warning flags on beaches.
• Practice safe boating—follow all boating safety laws, do not drink alcohol if driving a boat, and always wear a life jacket.
• Do not dive into shallow water.
• Do not swim in freshwater in developing areas or where sanitation is poor.
• Avoid swallowing water when swimming. Untreated water can carry germs that make you sick.
• To prevent infections, wear shoes on beaches where there may be animal waste.

Leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can be spread in fresh water, is found in Vietnam. Avoid swimming in fresh, unchlorinated water, such as lakes, ponds, or rivers.

Keep away from animals

Most animals avoid people, but they may attack if they feel threatened, are protecting their young or territory, or if they are injured or ill. Animal bites and scratches can lead to serious diseases such as rabies.

Follow these tips to protect yourself:

• Do not touch or feed any animals you do not know.
• Do not allow animals to lick open wounds, and do not get animal saliva in your eyes or mouth.
• Avoid rodents and their urine and feces.
• Traveling pets should be supervised closely and not allowed to come in contact with local animals.
• If you wake in a room with a bat, seek medical care immediately. Bat bites may be hard to see.

All animals can pose a threat, but be extra careful around dogs, bats, monkeys, sea animals such as jellyfish, and snakes. If you are bitten or scratched by an animal, immediately:

• Wash the wound with soap and clean water.
• Go to a doctor right away.
• Tell your doctor about your injury when you get back to the United States.

Consider buying medical evacuation insurance. Rabies is a deadly disease that must be treated quickly, and treatment may not be available in some countries.

Reduce your exposure to germs

Follow these tips to avoid getting sick or spreading illness to others while traveling:

• Wash your hands often, especially before eating.
• If soap and water aren’t available, clean hands with hand sanitizer (containing at least 60% alcohol).
• Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. If you need to touch your face, make sure your hands are clean.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.
• Try to avoid contact with people who are sick.
• If you are sick, stay home or in your hotel room, unless you need medical care.

Avoid sharing body fluids

Diseases can be spread through body fluids, such as saliva, blood, vomit, and semen.

Protect yourself:

• Use latex condoms correctly.
• Do not inject drugs.
• Limit alcohol consumption. People take more risks when intoxicated.
• Do not share needles or any devices that can break the skin. That includes needles for tattoos, piercings, and acupuncture.
• If you receive medical or dental care, make sure the equipment is disinfected or sanitized.

Know how to get medical care while traveling

Plan for how you will get health care during your trip, should the need arise:

• Carry a list of local doctors and hospitals at your destination.
• Review your health insurance plan to determine what medical services it would cover during your trip. Consider purchasing travel health and medical evacuation insurance.
• Carry a card that identifies, in the local language, your blood type, chronic conditions or serious allergies, and the generic names of any medications you take.
• Some prescription drugs may be illegal in other countries. Call Vietnam’s embassy to verify that all of your prescription(s) are legal to bring with you.
• Bring all the medicines (including over-the-counter medicines) you think you might need during your trip, including extra in case of travel delays. Ask your doctor to help you get prescriptions filled early if you need to.

Many foreign hospitals and clinics are accredited by the Joint Commission International. A list of accredited facilities is available at their website ( www.jointcommissioninternational.org ).

In some countries, medicine (prescription and over-the-counter) may be substandard or counterfeit. Bring the medicines you will need from the United States to avoid having to buy them at your destination.

Malaria is a risk in some parts of Vietnam. If you are going to a risk area, fill your malaria prescription before you leave, and take enough with you for the entire length of your trip. Follow your doctor’s instructions for taking the pills; some need to be started before you leave.

Select safe transportation

Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 killer of healthy US citizens in foreign countries.

In many places cars, buses, large trucks, rickshaws, bikes, people on foot, and even animals share the same lanes of traffic, increasing the risk for crashes.

Be smart when you are traveling on foot.

• Use sidewalks and marked crosswalks.
• Pay attention to the traffic around you, especially in crowded areas.
• Remember, people on foot do not always have the right of way in other countries.

Riding/Driving

Choose a safe vehicle.

• Choose official taxis or public transportation, such as trains and buses.
• Ride only in cars that have seatbelts.
• Avoid overcrowded, overloaded, top-heavy buses and minivans.
• Avoid riding on motorcycles or motorbikes, especially motorbike taxis. (Many crashes are caused by inexperienced motorbike drivers.)
• Choose newer vehicles—they may have more safety features, such as airbags, and be more reliable.
• Choose larger vehicles, which may provide more protection in crashes.

Think about the driver.

• Do not drive after drinking alcohol or ride with someone who has been drinking.
• Consider hiring a licensed, trained driver familiar with the area.
• Arrange payment before departing.

Follow basic safety tips.

• Wear a seatbelt at all times.
• Sit in the back seat of cars and taxis.
• When on motorbikes or bicycles, always wear a helmet. (Bring a helmet from home, if needed.)
• Avoid driving at night; street lighting in certain parts of Vietnam may be poor.
• Do not use a cell phone or text while driving (illegal in many countries).
• Travel during daylight hours only, especially in rural areas.
• If you choose to drive a vehicle in Vietnam, learn the local traffic laws and have the proper paperwork.
• Get any driving permits and insurance you may need. Get an International Driving Permit (IDP). Carry the IDP and a US-issued driver's license at all times.
• Check with your auto insurance policy's international coverage, and get more coverage if needed. Make sure you have liability insurance.
• Avoid using local, unscheduled aircraft.
• If possible, fly on larger planes (more than 30 seats); larger airplanes are more likely to have regular safety inspections.
• Try to schedule flights during daylight hours and in good weather.

Medical Evacuation Insurance

If you are seriously injured, emergency care may not be available or may not meet US standards. Trauma care centers are uncommon outside urban areas. Having medical evacuation insurance can be helpful for these reasons.

Helpful Resources

Road Safety Overseas (Information from the US Department of State): Includes tips on driving in other countries, International Driving Permits, auto insurance, and other resources.

The Association for International Road Travel has country-specific Road Travel Reports available for most countries for a minimal fee.

For information traffic safety and road conditions in Vietnam, see Travel and Transportation on US Department of State's country-specific information for Vietnam .

Maintain personal security

Use the same common sense traveling overseas that you would at home, and always stay alert and aware of your surroundings.

Before you leave

• Research your destination(s), including local laws, customs, and culture.
• Monitor travel advisories and alerts and read travel tips from the US Department of State.
• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) .
• Leave a copy of your itinerary, contact information, credit cards, and passport with someone at home.
• Pack as light as possible, and leave at home any item you could not replace.

While at your destination(s)

• Carry contact information for the nearest US embassy or consulate .
• Carry a photocopy of your passport and entry stamp; leave the actual passport securely in your hotel.
• Follow all local laws and social customs.
• Do not wear expensive clothing or jewelry.
• Always keep hotel doors locked, and store valuables in secure areas.
• If possible, choose hotel rooms between the 2nd and 6th floors.

To call for emergency services while in Vietnam, dial 115 for an ambulance, 114 for the fire department, and 113 for the police. Write these numbers down to carry with you on your trip.

Learn as much as you can about Vietnam before you travel there. A good place to start is the country-specific information on Vietnam from the US Department of State

Healthy Travel Packing List

Use the Healthy Travel Packing List for Vietnam for a list of health-related items to consider packing for your trip. Talk to your doctor about which items are most important for you.

Why does CDC recommend packing these health-related items?

It’s best to be prepared to prevent and treat common illnesses and injuries. Some supplies and medicines may be difficult to find at your destination, may have different names, or may have different ingredients than what you normally use.

If you are not feeling well after your trip, you may need to see a doctor. If you need help finding a travel medicine specialist, see Find a Clinic . Be sure to tell your doctor about your travel, including where you went and what you did on your trip. Also tell your doctor if you were bitten or scratched by an animal while traveling.

If your doctor prescribed antimalarial medicine for your trip, keep taking the rest of your pills after you return home. If you stop taking your medicine too soon, you could still get sick.

Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. If you become ill with a fever either while traveling in a malaria-risk area or after you return home (for up to 1 year), you should seek immediate medical attention and should tell the doctor about your travel history.

For more information on what to do if you are sick after your trip, see Getting Sick after Travel .

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The FAA has hit 'unruly' flyers with $20 million in fines since the pandemic — a huge increase compared to pre-2020

• The FAA has fined 'unruly passengers' over $20 million since 2020.
• The number of passengers misbehaving on airlines spiked during the height of the pandemic.

The FAA told Business Insider it has a "zero-tolerance policy toward unruly passengers."

Misbehaving airline passengers are paying a steep price.

Data shared by the Federal Aviation Administration showed that it has fined "unruly passengers" over $20.9 million since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

Air travel in the United States came to a near-total halt in 2020 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first COVID-19 case that January. That year, the FAA levied $0.6 million in fines against "unruly passengers."

That number skyrocketed in 2021 to $5 million. At that time, COVID-19 vaccines had become more accessible, and border restrictions began to ease , meaning more people were returning to air travel .

The FAA's fines peaked in 2022 at $8.4 million. That year, the agency said it levied its largest fines against two passengers for separate incidents in 2021. The proposed fines were $81,950 and $77,272, respectively.

The FAA fined passengers $7.5 million in 2023, a slight dip but still significantly higher than pre-pandemic.

"Unruly behavior is dangerous to everyone on board and in the skies because of the inconvenience, the threat of health, safety and security, and possible operational disruption of an aircraft in flight," the FAA said in a statement.

The agency said the unruly passenger rate declined by over 65% between 2021 — when the FAA recorded almost 6,000 cases — and 2023, when it recorded about 2,000. That's still higher than pre-pandemic numbers in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Related stories

The FAA said it had received almost 900 "unruly passenger" reports as of September 8 this year but didn't have data on the number of fines it has issued so far.

In August, the agency said it referred over 300 of the "most serious cases" since 2021 to the FBI. Those cases involved everything from passengers attempting to breach the flight deck to physically assaulting other travelers.

"Unruly passengers are a threat to the safety of everyone on board an aircraft. The FAA's zero-tolerance policy is working to reduce this threat and to signal that unruly behavior is not tolerated on any flight," the statement read.

Aviation security expert Jeffrey Price told BI that travel-related stress, like delayed or canceled flights, can cause passengers to act out.

"Increased stress pretty much always results in a shorter fuse, whether that's on a plane or on the road," Price told BI, adding that some travelers are behaving "more entitled" post-pandemic.

Watch: 5 times unruly passengers disrupted flights in 2023

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• Inspiring stories from Vietnam in Covid-19

All photography by Christian Berg

There is a saying in Vietnamese that goes, “The whole leaf covers the torn leaf.” When the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on Vietnam, the country came together to care for its own in the unique way the Vietnamese do. Early preventative measures reduced the health risks inside Vietnam, however the kindness of the people and the collective spirit of support is Vietnam’s real success story. Read on for a few inspiring stories of how the Vietnamese responded during the COVID-19 crisis.

Generous gifts.

When it became clear that many people did not have enough food for their families during the pandemic, one young Vietnamese entrepreneur set up a free “rice ATM” in Ho Chi Minh City. Soon rice ATMs were also set up in other cities dispensing this basic staple at no cost. In Quảng Trị, Bình Thuận, and many other provinces, locals hosted weekend ‘markets’ where struggling families could shop for essentials for free, and generous donors gave out meals on street corners. Many Vietnamese donated in other ways. Tailors in Quảng Ngãi and Cần Thơ used their sewing machines to create free masks. Volunteers in Đà Nẵng drove through the nights to deliver supplies to hospitals. University students gave their dorm rooms to be used as quarantine facilities. Stories like these warmed hearts across the country.

Bringing citizens home

One of the most dramatic stories that circulated in Vietnam early in the pandemic was the repatriation flight from Wuhan to Vietnam. Aware of the dangers of the mission, Vietnam Airlines asked for volunteers to help bring 40 Vietnamese home from the pandemic’s epicentre. More than 100 flight crew raised their hands to go to Wuhan and enter quarantine on arrival back in Vietnam. The flight was carefully orchestrated to protect crew and passengers, and everyone returned safe and sound. Over the months that followed, Vietnam's airlines all joined the mission to bring Vietnamese home from around the world. These brave flight crews were celebrated by Vietnamese alongside the medical workers and military personnel.

Care for guests and visitors 

Despite the unusual circumstances created by the pandemic, Vietnam’s warm hospitality and care for its visitors shone through on many occasions. When one British pilot became seriously ill and required a lung transplant, more than 60 Vietnamese volunteered their lungs for the procedure to help him, and teams of the country’s best doctors met virtually to discuss the patient’s recovery. It was a great success for Vietnam when Patient 91 recovered and was able to fly home. Vietnam’s tourism board also set up an English helpline to assist stranded travellers, and hospitality group Victoria Hotels & Resorts offered four-star rooms at 20 USD a night to travellers who needed to stay longer. 

Quarantine camps

Over the course of the pandemic, thousands of returning Vietnamese and expats spent time in quarantine. Vietnam’s soldiers were tasked with the job of setting up makeshift camps around the country and running daily operations. The soldiers did everything from cleaning and delivering food to baby-sitting, winning the admiration of their guests for their hard work. Gavin Wheeldon, a British citizen, penned an essay titled ‘Life Inside a Vietnamese Government Quarantine', detailing his daily life in the camp and expressing gratitude for the “friendly and caring” soldiers who “work(ed) tirelessly" to make his life more comfortable in a time of chaos.  

Supplies for friends overseas

Because many Vietnamese already wear masks on motorcycles, the country had plenty of masks to go around. But it soon became clear that some of our neighbours did not. In response to the crisis, Vietnam sent 420,000 USD worth of masks and medical supplies to Australia, India, Singapore, Thailand, as well as other countries. More than 700,000 made-in-Vietnam masks were donated to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, and the US. On a smaller scale, two children from Hanoi spent their Lunar New Year lucky money savings from over the years to buy 20,000 masks which they sent to patients in the United Kingdom. British Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward wrote a personal thank you letter to the children for their kindness. 

Fundraising for COVID-19 victims

Like many places, Vietnam has seen countless industries devastated by the pandemic; but generous members of the business community and private individuals are working together to bring relief to those severely affected. The ‘Rise with Vietnam’ relay took place in October 2020, and saw 153 runners covering the length of the country to raise funds for workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19. The runners raised 4.9 billion VND for the cause. Vietnam's top singers and songwriters also gathered for a virtual concert which raised 1.3 billion VND for women affected by the pandemic. The government’s COVID-19 fund drew donations from North to South amounting to more than to 2.2 trillion VND.

Praise for Vietnam’s efforts

After months of working together to combat the virus, Vietnam received an outpouring of praise from locals and expats who appreciated the capable handling of the situation. In April 2020, an expat started the ‘Vietnam We Thank You' campaign honouring Vietnam’s doctors, nurses, police force, soldiers, and volunteers for their efforts to keep people safe and healthy. Foreigners living in Vietnam and travellers treated under quarantine posted thank you notes on social media, cheering Vietnam on. 

As a result of the pandemic, Vietnam’s community spirit is stronger than ever, and the whole country is eagerly awaiting the day it will welcome visitors back again.

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