A vaccine passport is a new concept mentioned by many countries to open borders.
The widespread deployment of Covid-19 vaccines will help restore tourists’ confidence, contribute to easing travel restrictions, and gradually normalize tourism activities.
30 years going backward
International visitors to Vietnam in 2020 are estimated at 3,837 million, down 78.7% compared to the previous year. |
In the January 2021 report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the world tourism industry experienced the largest crisis in history in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 73.9% of decrease in international tourist arrivals compared to 2019, going back to the figure of 30 years ago.
Accordingly, the number of international tourists in 2020 reached only 381 million arrivals, down 73.9% compared to 2019, equivalent to over 1 billion arrivals. The main reason was the sharp decline in travel demand and global travel restrictions in response to the epidemic. This reduction is between scenario 2 (-70%) and scenario 3 (-78%) forecasted by the UNWTO in May 2020.
The decline in international arrivals has caused a loss of about US$1.3 trillion in international tourism exports, 11 times higher than the loss during the global economic crisis in 2009. In terms of the direct contribution of tourism to GDP, the pandemic caused losses of about $2 trillion, accounting for more than 2% of the total global GDP.
According to the General Statistics Office, international visitors to Vietnam in 2020 reached 3,837 million, down 78.7% over the previous year. As many as 4,734 businesses in the fields of tourism, hotels, transportation, travel services, and others suspended operation and 1,296 companies completed dissolution procedures. The pandemic might cause the loss of 100-120 million direct jobs in the tourism industry. Many of them are small and medium-sized enterprises.
There are numbers, although not included in official statistics: 95% of 2,667 international travel agencies had…