Beautiful Vietnam
Vietnam to pilot vaccine passports in Phu Quoc
  • | tienphong, dtinews.vn | June 19, 2021 06:39 AM
The Communist Party of Vietnam Politburo has suggested piloting Covid-19 vaccine passports in Phu Quoc Island to attract foreign tourists.

  

A corner of Phu Quoc Island


According to the Politburo, vaccine passports can be used at tourist destinations that have Covid-19 pandemic under control like Hoi An City. After the destinations are selected, criteria should be set. Thailand and Singapore have set up detailed processes and criteria for receiving tourists. They only receive tourists from countries with low and medium risk of infection.

The Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) held a meeting on June 17 to gather opinions before submitting the proposal to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Hoang Nhan Chinh, General Secretary of TAB, said, "Will Phu Quoc receive both foreign and domestic tourists? We think we should only receive foreign tourists for the time being."

Co-operation from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other related agencies are needed to realise the project. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism were urged to quickly draft the safety criteria.

According to Pham Ha, CEO of Luxury Travel, their partners in Northern Europe and America said they want to organise tours to Vietnam.

"They are only waiting for us to reopen. This time, they only choose a few countries and extend the length of stay. It's important that we have clear processes and information," Ha said.

Thailand launched the Phuket Sandbox plan for vaccinated tourists from countries that have low or medium risks of Covid-19 transmission. The tourists will be tested in Thailand and must prove that they have bought a Covid-19 health insurance policy of at least USD100,000.

"Vaccine passport programme has been piloted in several countries like Denmark, France, Thailand, Japan, and China. It's a new programme with lots of concerns so I think we should pilot the programme for domestic travel first," Nguyen Tien Dat, CEO of AZA Travel said. "Phu Quoc is the prime destination and I suggest arranging golf tours and resort tours first."

Travel firms also proposed to include tourism industry personnel who work directly with customers into the priority groups of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

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