Thua Thien Hue Province’s first tourists of 2022 welcomed at a ceremony held by the provincial hospitality sector on January 1, 2022. (Photo: vietnamairport.vn)

Following the motto of safely and flexibly adapting to and effectively controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, provinces and cities in the central region are gradually taking steps to recover their economy, restart activities and events to stimulate tourism demand and welcome back visitors, while ensuring pandemic prevention and control regulations and improving the quality of services.

Central localities made warm-up activities at the end of 2021 to rejuvenate tourism. Accordingly, Da Nang, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Binh, and Khanh Hoa have promoted the coordination between tour operators and accommodation facilities in order to meet the needs of different customer segments for passengers on the same flight to the localities.

The local authorities have also promulgated preferential policies to welcome visitors back and mobilise businesses’ further participation in promoting tourism.

Currently, more than 300 accommodation establishments, over 50 travel agencies, and 9 out of the 16 tourist sites and attractions in Da Nang City have resumed operations, with various special promotional packages having been launched to lure more visitors to the city. Meanwhile, a total of 39 establishments in Khanh Hoa Province have met the requirement to serve international tourists.

In addition, a wide range of initiatives and solutions have been proposed and implemented to revive tourism. Thua Thien Hue Province is accelerating its tourism promotion programme through virtual activities while Quang Nam stands ready to host the National Tourism Year 2022.

According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet, the National Tourism Year 2022 will pave the way for tourist activities to recover and thrive again, contributing to advertising Quang Nam Province and Vietnam in general to tourists.

Da Nang City welcomes the first 500 MICE tourists on December 10, 2021, after a long social distancing period triggered by the resurgence of COVID-19. (Photo: VNA)

Khanh Hoa Province witnessed a new start of tourism development on the morning of December 26, 2021, when the Azur Air flight carrying a total of 325 passengers with “vaccine passports”, including 226 Russians, touched down at Cam Ranh International Airport. They were the first group of foreign tourists to visit the province since March 2020.

To date, the province has welcomed nearly 3,000 tourists holding “vaccine passports” from other markets such as the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Japan.

The hospitality sector is expected to get major boost on the occasion of the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet) after a long time being badly hid by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quang Binh Province has developed has built closed tours to safe destinations in the locality in amid to prevent and control the pandemic while bringing exciting travel experience for vacationers from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The province has set a target of receiving 2 million visitors in 2022 and fully resuming tourism activities in the new normal while adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic safely and flexibly.

In the first quarter of 2022, Da Nang City expects to serve a total of 284 domestic flights while Khanh Hoa Province plans to welcome 26 flights, carrying around 320 passengers with Russian passports on each flight.

The return of domestic and international tourists is expected to make tourism sector in central region expected to prosper again in 2022.