From the beginning of the year until now, the number of guests staying overnight in Can Tho reached over 1.1 million, down 52.6% over the same period in 2019. Total revenue from tourism was estimated at over 2 trillion VND, down 43.4% over the same period last year.

Mr. Phan Dinh Hue, Director of Viet Circle Travel Company, said: “Since Vietnam in general and the Mekong Delta, in particular, have well-controlled the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be a great advantage to recover tourism. At this moment, we should aim to set up ‘safe tourism’ criteria for the following groups of basic services namely safe destination, safe traffic, safe service, safe food. In particular, Can Tho should establish a safe tourism alliance with all members in the tourism value chain. This alliance must not only build safe tourism criteria but also need to apply 4.0 technology to frequently update and connect with tourists, instead of using books and papers as today.

According to Ms. Vo Xuan Thu, General Director of Victoria Can Tho Hotel, The implementation should be synchronous and unanimous from the travel agencies. They also need to keep a high awareness of strictly implementing solutions to prevent and control the pandemic. “Currently, the pandemic has placed extreme challenges on the demand for overseas travel. It is a good sign then tourists begin to travel domestically. So I focus on maintaining safe accommodation until we have a vaccine and people can travel freely, safely without needing protective measures” - Ms. Vo Xuan Thu said.

According to the Mekong Delta Tourism Association, there are three requirements for localities to develop safe tourism. First, synergy with a systematic, chain-based approach to transforming tourism activities in line with the new situation. Second, safety standards for tourism must be clear and easy-to-follow. Currently, each province and city has its own safety standards, but there are no general standards by regions; Therefore, it is necessary to build and set up general criteria for the whole country by regions, by industries like transportation, accommodation, food service, etc. Third, ‘safe tourism’ criteria need to apply technology for effective execution.

Floating markets in Can Tho city attract many visitors

From a business perspective, Ms. Le Dinh Minh Thy, Director of Vietravel - Can Tho Branch said: “In addition to a safe destination and trained staff, another criterion to build safe tourism is safety in travel-related services. Safety in tourism services service here requires the participation of tourist service providers such as transportation, restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, etc. In other words, we have to work together to ensure visitors’ safety. This is one of the communication messages for visitors, which is “travel safely and only travel when it is safe”.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city said: “In the coming time, Can Tho will organize a tourism stimulus program in 2020 with the theme “Can Tho - Safe and Warm”. Accordingly, the coordination between state management agencies, associations, the business community, and society will be closely strengthened. The Department will shortly mobilize to connect 9 industries to provide tourism services, forming an attractive stimulus product chain to support the recovery of travel companies. Up to now, there have been 60 businesses registered to participate in the stimulus program, with discounts from 10% to 50% and many other attractive promotions.

"We will work with a telecom unit to build a smart travel website so that visitors can learn more about the Tourism Map of Can Tho city and the safety standards. Currently, we have updated the data until the end of October. Regarding the development of the Tourism Map, we also listed on the tourism portal of Can Tho city and the social network we manage. We also sent the list to businesses in Can Tho and introduced to visitors businesses that have joined the criteria set for safe tourism” - Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan said.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city urged businesses to register the safety standards for tourism.

The solution already exists, but now the number of enterprises voluntarily registering the safety standards for tourism is still small, only 72 units. Garden owners and restaurants have not yet registered much. The next step to be done quickly and thoroughly is to create a common network of businesses to unanimously register and implement these safety standards. As a result, it is possible to build a general set of safety standards in tourism, so that all units involved in the tourism value chain can voluntarily participate in the implementation. Private interests and mutual interests of all parties will create safe tourism in the “new normal” state./.