Vietnam's Tourism Industry and COVID-19: An Analysis of the Industry’s Challenges in the First Quarter of 2020

Abstract

ABSTRACT The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate how Vietnam has overcome the challenges confronting the tourism industry during the COVID 19 pandemic. Today, Vietnam is considered a premiere tourism destination and has a comparatively low COVID-19 death rate. COVID-19 has claimed over a million lives since early 2020 and has caused political, economic, social, and environmental paralysis. However, Vietnam's resilience, recovery from lockdowns, timely policy responses, and the cooperation of citizens and residents assisted the fight against this contagious disease. Secondary data from available government, newspaper, and academic sources are analysed in order to evaluate Vietnam’s tourism industry's success at battling the challenges of COVID-19. Recommendations are proposed to strengthen the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s coordination with other ministries in devising plans and programs to overcome future crises that are likely to negatively impact the tourism industry. Keywords: COVID-19, Tourism industry, Vietnam.