Is Vietnam ready to welcome tourists back? Assessing COVID-19’s economic impact and the Vietnamese tourism industry’s response to the pandemic

This paper qualitatively assesses COVID-19’s impact on the tourism industry in Vietnam and the Vietnamese government and tourism industry’s responses to the pandemic. It includes data from government media sources, semi-structured interviews with 30 managers of travel enterprises, and two group discussions with 50 representatives of tourism and hospitality businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Its findings indicate that Vietnam’s tourism sector responded passively in the first stages of the pandemic and then responded reactively and successfully alongside the Vietnamese government’s planned re-opening of society and the economy. In particular, it shows how government authorities and tourism companies are implementing strategies to encourage domestic tourism and boost the sector’s economic recovery. This paper also explores how various tourism stakeholders in Vietnam (a) see the pandemic as an opportunity to restructure various practices and yet (b) have not prepared contingency plans and long-term strategies to help prevent and mitigate the risks to the industry posed by future crises. This paper concludes by reflecting on how the pandemic illustrates the need for proactive efforts to prepare reduction and readiness strategies and draw up initiatives for long-term development of tourism in Vietnam.