The Official Letter No. 2240/UBND-KGVX on the continued implementation of measures to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic in the new situation issued by the People's Committee of Can Tho city on July 28th, 2020, encourages people not to leave their homes if not necessary and take measures to prevent and control the pandemic according to regulations; Do not gather more than 30 people outside of offices, schools, and hospitals. Tourism activities are limited and must strictly comply with regulations on safety criteria.

To respond and adapt to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city has developed a set of travel safety standards for tourist accommodation establishments, travel companies, tour operators and tourist destinations. Accordingly, for tourist accommodation establishments (one to five-star hotels, motels, homestays ...), there are 10 safety standards on tourism. For example, the Vietnam health declaration; publicize recommendations and guidelines on prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic at the reception area; frequently update information on the pandemic; ensure the social distancing (at least 1 meter); arrange isolation sites for people suspected of being infected with COVID-19... 10 safety standards for travel businesses include establish a hotline; arrange staff to support tourists and report to the local authorities; wear masks and check body temperature for workers and tourists; tour guides must remind tourists about disease prevention measures; tourists entering Vietnam must undergo medical checks, etc. For the tourist destinations, the area for eating and drinking must be arranged appropriately, ensuring the distance between customers according to regulations as well as food sampling for all dishes of 30 servings or more...

In order to strictly comply with safety regulations, there are always face masks, hand sanitizers available for visitors, and body temperature check service for guests in the tourist destinations in Can Tho city. Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoang, Deputy General Director of My Khanh Tourist Village, said: “We have prepared face masks for visitors and checked their body temperature. In the event of a suspected case or temperature abnormality, we also prepare private rooms for quarantine before the local authorities arrive to take the next steps in accordance with the regulations”. Not only My Khanh Tourist Village, many hotels such as Victoria, TTC, Muong Thanh ... all prepare quarantine rooms for visitors with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. These accommodation establishments also actively adapt by not receiving groups of more than 30 guests and reducing service capacity to ensure safety.

A corner of Can Tho Ecolodge resort.

Due to the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism businesses in the local also actively create many solutions. Some units such as Vietravel, Saigontourist, BenThanh Tourist have flexibly split shifts and allowed employees to work from home. Moreover, safe tourist destinations and small group tours for short days are introduced to visitors. Mr. Truong Van Vinh, Director of Idol Travel, said: “In the short term, we focus on completing the signed contracts, ensuring that tourists have their trip as planned, and if there are any changes to the route, we will make sure that visitors still have a good and safe vacation.”. Some tourist destinations also actively stop receiving tourists for a short period of time, such as Ong De tourist village, Con Son community-based tourism, Bao Gia farm, etc., to ensure safety for tourists, improve service quality, renew products, then start to welcome tourists back in mid-August. Tourist attractions such as Ut Hien, Rach Ke ... also gradually changed their form of serving tourists into online reservation with a limited number of guests.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city, said that in the current situation, the local tourism industry will strictly comply with Directive 19/CT-TTg; support tourism businesses to well implement Official Letter No. 2240/UBND-KGVX on strengthening measures to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic in the new situation; continue to conduct surveys, check the implementation of safe travel criteria; coordinate closely with relevant departments, agencies, Can Tho International Airport to check the body temperature, complete the medical declaration, and reveal the visitor’s schedule to Can Tho. On that basis, the tourism industry of Can Tho city will create a safe tourism map. As of August 10th, there are about 67 units registering for the safe travel criteria.

In the long term, in order to respond and adapt to the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Tung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city, proposed 4 recommendations, of which safety is the top priority. “The city tourism industry focuses on proactive measures for the COVID-19 pandemic, safety must always be ensured by the close coordination among departments, especially the Department of Health in making more important recommendations and guidelines. The tourism industry has also developed safety standards to establish safe tourism maps for visitors. In addition, during this period, the tourism industry focuses on helping investors with investment procedures, focusing on human resource development, restructuring tourism, and renovating the typical tourism products of the city”, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Tung said.

The complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in our country once again have a negative impact on the tourism industry. In that context, Can Tho tourism has flexibly and proactively transformed to both ensure safety for visitors and minimize the negative economic impact. Besides, the tourism industry also takes advantage of this period to perform key tasks in terms of investment, human resources, product development ... The above ideas are also a premise to create internal resources for Can Tho tourism to develop stably. These are long-term works but they need to be done immediately and gradually adjusted to develop Can Tho tourism sustainably.

In the first 7 months of 2020, the total number of tourists to Can Tho reached nearly 2.2 million, a decrease of 61.1% over the same period in 2019, reaching only 23.8% of the 2020 plan. Tourists staying in Can Tho were about 828,645, down 53% year-on-year. Total revenue from tourism reached about 1,315 billion VND, down 49.9% over the same period last year. The decline in the number of tourists and revenue due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to now, the city has 290 tourist accommodation establishments, with a total of 7,472 rooms. Particularly, there are 135 hotels rated from 1 to 5 stars, with 4,944 rooms, the rest are non-star rated hotels, motels, and homestays. There are 62 tourist companies in the city; including 36 domestic and 26 international travel agencies.