Currently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is preparing a project while working with relevant ministries, branches, and the People's Committee of Kien Giang province. The project also mentions the injection of COVID-19 vaccine for about 70% of Phu Quoc inhabitants.

Before COVID pandemic, Phu Quoc is one of the most important tourist destinations in Vietnam

On the sidelines of Culture, Sports and Tourism sector Online Conference to review the work of the first 6 months and the orientation of key tasks for the last 6 months of 2021, Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet shared with reporters about the pilot project to welcome international visitors to Phu Quoc (Kien Giang).

Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is currently preparing a project, working with relevant ministries and branches such as the Ministry of Public Security, Foreign Affairs, Health, Kien Giang Provincial People's Committee; striving to synthesize all evaluation opinions before July 20.

On that basis, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism synthesized into a project and reported to the Prime Minister for final comments, which is also the basis for them to pilot welcome international guests in Phu Quoc (Kien Giang).

Phu Quoc was chosen as a pilot because it is an attractive tourist destination, a "pearl island" in Vietnam's marine tourism. This place also has full facilities, accommodation and places to visit. Moreover, the community is small, about 100,000 people and separate from the mainland, with good traffic, etc.

Phu Quoc has been invested to construct a number of destinations for tourists

The project also specifically mentions welcoming guests, ensuring security and order, entry, handling situations related to the COVID-19 pandemic (if any) and vaccination against COVID-19 for about 70% of citizens.

Many foreign tourists love travelling Phu Quoc

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism wants relevant ministries and branches to focus on implementing together with the Ministry to organize pilot activities of important significance, stimulating tourism development, especially international tourists to Vietnam.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism pays attention to reactivating Phu Quoc tourism

As for this project, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism sets a goal to reactivate tourism activities, which is a sensitive field, seriously affected by the epidemic for international visitors, especially markets in Europe, America, Asia and in the region, ect.

Quang Nam also suggested that, after piloting international arrivals in Phu Quoc, Quang Nam should be allowed to do so because the locality has already prepared plans for infrastructure, epidemic prevention, and welcoming international tourists by means of charter flights, etc.

According to the draft Pilot Plan to welcome international tourists to Phu Quoc, in the first phase, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinated with the People's Committee of Kien Giang province to select a number of tourist sites, resorts and large-scale resorts, which are capable of dividing separate safe relax zones for international tourists according to the plan's content.

A lot of people love travelling Phu Quoc

In the next phase, based on the assessment of the actual situation of the pilot implementation, they will consider and decide on the expansion of the scope according to the roadmap.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall coordinate with concerned ministries and branches and assume the prime responsibility for selecting international tourist markets from countries and territories (with potential, high safety in terms of COVID-19 disease prevention and control in some regions such as Northeast Asia, Europe, the United States, the Middle East, etc.).

International tourists enter by air, via charter flights or commercial flights.

In phase 1 (from the first to the third month), pilot welcome from 2,000 to 3,000 guests/month, through charter flights, deploy to serve guests in limited range and locations.

Phase 2 (from the fourth to the sixth month), after evaluating the pilot phase 1, if the requirements are met, they will expand the welcome scale from 5,000 to 10,000 guests/month through commercial flights.

About 2000 artists and 27,000 tour guides are reviewed and supported

Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet also shared: On July 1, 2021, the Government issued Resolution 68/NQ-CP on the policies to support employees and employers facing difficulties caused by COVID-19 pandemic. In the field of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there are 2 beneficiaries of subsidy policies. Those are the professional titles of class IV artists, the second are tour guides - the most affected and disadvantaged people in the cultural, sports and tourism industries.

The number of class-IV artists who have no opportunity to go on stage or act, no income in the past time is not big, about more than 2000 people, according to statistics of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. 

The number of domestic and international tour guides at specific travel agencies and tourist destinations affected by the COVID-19 epidemic is nearly 27,000 people.

Tags: recovering tourism after COVID pandemic, Phu Quoc tourism, Phu Quoc welcome international tourists, Vietnamese Government actions to improve tourism, Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, policies regarding tourism development, Phu Quoc tourist destinations, tourism industry in the COVID period