A new stimulus program titled ‘Vietnam – Go there to experience’ will be launched soon, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) told a recent event in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Hoi An ancient town. Photo: Vu Minh Quan

At the "Meet the Experts" event last week, Khanh said that since March, inbound tourism has come to a standstill and only foreign professionals and investors have been allowed to enter for business purposes and to seek cooperation opportunities in the country.

Thanks to the launching of series of campaigns such as "Vietnamese People Travel in Vietnam" and “Vietnam tourism - a Safe and Attractive Destination”, the sector achieved impressive results from May to July, with the number of domestic tourists growing by about 20% over the same period in 2019, Mr. Khanh added.

Currently, the VNAT is continuing to roll out stimulus programs for domestic tourism in the last months of 2020 which are expected to help the local industry to recover soon.

He also underlined that tourism has always been identified as an important economic sector in Vietnam. In 2019, the sector catered to more than 18 million international and 85 million domestic visitors. Tourism created about 4 million jobs and contributed US$32.8 billion to the national economy, equivalent to 9.2% of GDP.