In recent years, the trend of tourism at the beginning of the new year, especially on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, has been increasing. Instead of welcoming in the Lunar New Year at home, many Vietnamese families have opted to go traveling to experience the Tet atmosphere and consider it a vacation to explore and enjoy new places together.
Capture trends and social needs, transport and travel agents have launched many tours and routes to meet the increasingly diverse needs as well as help tourists have more choices. According to the assessment of travel businesses, the needs of tourists during the Tet holiday are usually 20-30% higher than in normal months. Not only domestic tourists but foreigners also love to come to Viet Nam at this time to explore the natural and cultural features, traditions and customs of the Vietnamese people. International visitors to Viet Nam in the first 2 months from 2017 to 2020 maintained a relatively high growth rate, of which in 2017, it reached 2.2 million visitors, up 33%; 2018 reached 2.9 million visitors, up 29.7%; in 2019 was 3.1 million visitors, up 8% and 2020 got 3.2 million visitors, up 4.8%. Increasing tourism demand has helped revenue from tourism and travel services in the first 2 months increase gradually over the years with a growth rate of more 10% per year (2017 increased by 10.2% over the same period last year; in 2018 increased by 13,2%; in 2019 increased by 10.7%). Since the end of February 2020, due to the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic, Vietnam’s tourism has suffered extremely heavy losses. In the first 2 months of 2021, international visitors to Viet Nam only reached 28.7 thousand arrivals, but mainly foreign experts and technical workers working in projects in Viet Nam and transporting goods in road border gate, down 99.1% over the same period last year.
The closure of international tourism causes tourism businesses to change direction, focus on exploiting the domestic tourism market. However, the epidemic of Covid-19 in the world is still complicated and in Viet Nam, although well-controlled, there are still outbreaks occurring in the community, especially the third wave in Hai Duong at the end of January 2021- with a very high level of infection. The epidemic broke out again on Tan Suu Lunar New Year 2021, making the tourism industry once again fall into difficulty, the tourism of many provinces fell into a bleak state. A series of customers requested cancellation of tours, including tours not to the epidemic areas due to psychological fear, only a few customers agreed to postpone the tour to another time when the Covid-19 epidemic is under control. The number of domestic and international tourists has fallen sharply, leading to a sharp decline in tourism and traveling services revenue in the first 2 months of the year, only 2.5 trillion dongs, down by 62.1 % compared to the same period last year. Due to the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic, many major tourist destinations had to stop operating, or open their doors but stopped organizing spring-welcoming activities, so the number of visitors dropped sharply compared to the same time of years ago. According to reports of localities, revenue from tourism and traveling services in the first 2 months of the year of Hai Phong decreased by 18.6% over the same period last year; Ba Ria – Vung Tau by 41.5%; Ha Noi by 47.7%; Da Nang by 67.7%; Ho Chi Minh City by 69.2%; Thua Thien – Hue by 73.3%; Hai Duong by 89.4%. Particularly during the Lunar New Year holiday in 2021, although there are many incentive programs, promotions, discounts are launched but occupancy of accommodation establishments in Ho Chi Minh City was only less than 10%; the number of tourists to Binh Thuan, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Nha Trang … also decreased by 50-80% compared with the Lunar New Year last year.
It is forecasted that in the remaining months of 2021, international tourism will not soon return to the normal state as before due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic in the world. In Viet Nam, people are still afraid, so they do not plan to book and experience the service at tourist destinations. Recovery of tourism when Covid-19 is controlled, especially international travel, takes time. In short term, tourism and travel businesses are implementing activities to prepare for the peak season of tourism on the holidays April 30 – May 1. Focusing on exploiting the domestic market, discounting tours in accordance with the needs of customers and promoting the factor “safe travel service” is a solution applied by tourism businesses to be able to overcome the current difficulties.