The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affecting Ninh Binh province's tourism. Since the beginning of 2020, the number of visitors to local destinations has decreased sharply, resulting in a big drop in revenues.
Trang An landscape.
In order to resume tourism activities and provide the best services for tourists when the COVID-19 pandemic is put under control, provincial authorities have been implementing numerous solutions in line with the real conditions and situation of the province.
According to the provincial Department of Tourism, Ninh Binh's tourism is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Vietnam in early 2020.
Tourism activities in the province became gloomy and tourist sites and destinations saw no visitors. There are 25 travel companies in the province, including three international travel firms. Most of them reported that over 90 percent of booked tours were cancelled in the first wave of COVID-19 infections at the start of 2020.
The province's tourism sector saw a sharp fall in both number of tourist arrivals and revenues last year.
Ninh Binh welcomed just 2.8 million tourists in 2020, equivalent to 37 percent of the figure in the previous year. It earned only 1.6 trillion VND (70 million USD), equivalent to 45 percent to the figure of 2019.
Since the beginning of 2021, the tourism sector has continued to suffering the toughest period due to complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic with the appearance of new variants.
All tourist destinations must close their doors in order to ensure COVID-19 prevention and control. This has resulted in a sharp fall in the number of domestic visitors and turnover.
The data showed that the number of tourist arrivals to Ninh Binh fell to 925,700 in the first eight months of the year, down 50.4 percent from the same period last year. Earnings from tourism reached 588.6 billion VND, representing a year-on-year decrease of 44.7 percent.
The COVID-19 pandemic has still seen complicated developments, however, some localities have basically controlled the disease.
In order to bring the tourism sector back on track after the pandemic is controlled, Ninh Binh has been focusing on promoting and advertising its destinations as well as preparing all conditions to serve tourists better.
According to Nguyen Van Minh, Director of the Centre for Tourism Information and Promotion of Ninh Binh, promoting online tourism is seen as one of the key tasks of the local tourism sector at present.
Since the beginning of September, the tourism sector has offered a series of online tours to discover and introduce interesting local destinations through social platforms like Facebook, Zalo, Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube.
The programme aims to provide virtual experiences for visitors, popularize Ninh Binh's tourism and create jobs for local tour guides. With interesting virtual experiences, tourists would choose Ninh Binh as their real destinations when the COVID-19 pandemic is put under control.
As planned, the centre is holding online tours on Sunday mornings from September 19 to December 26. Each tour lasts from 45 to 60 minutes.
The first online tour, which was launched on September 19, introduced the ancient capital of Hoa Lu to participants.
Other online tours discovering Tam Coc - Bich Dong, Trang An scenic landscape complex, Thien Ha cave, Phat Diem stone church, Cuc Phuong National Park, and other destinations have been held on the next Sunday mornings.
Besides, specialties of Ninh Binh like goat meat, Yen Mac fermented pork roll and shrimp sauce are also introduced in the virtual tours.
Besides, the sector is paying heed to sketching out scenarios for recovery right after the pandemic is put under control.
At the same time, it will develop numerous tourism products which exploit heritage and cultural values sustainably, thus creating distinctive products of the province.
Tourist destinations are upgrading their facilities, improving their landscapes, planting more trees like Thung Nham ecological site and Mua cave. The Cuc Phuong National Park launched a new tour called "Going home" - the first ever tour of its kind in Vietnam that allow tourists to release rescued animals back to nature by themselves.
Local restaurants and lodging establishments have upgraded their rooms and infrastructure and provided training courses for their staff in a bid to raise the quality of services.
Tourist destinations have strictly implemented COVID-19 prevention and control measures in order to ensure safety for tourism workers and tourists when the province resumes tourism activities.