Localities and travel firms have quickly embarked on plans to welcome back Chinese tourists to Vietnam and take Vietnamese visitors to China, after the Chinese side announced that it will officially cancel concentrated quarantine and COVID-19 testing for foreign visitors to this country from January 8.

Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that this is a signal helping stabilise the flow of international visitors because China has always been a big market for Vietnam.

The number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam increased by 34.4% per year, hitting 5.8 million in 2019. They always make up 28-30% of the total number of international arrivals to Vietnam.

Speaking at a recent seminar on airline - tourism cooperation, Director of the Department of Tourism of central Khanh Hoa province Nguyen Thi Le Thanh said  Vietjet Air and China Southern (CZ) have planned to resume their operation from March 26, while  Vietnam Airlines will re-operate its flights from the Chinese market on June 1.

The People's Committee of Mong Cai city in the northern province of Quang Ninh has sent a document to tourism sites and businesses  about the preparation for welcoming tourists during the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Many travel and tourism businesses are also ready to welcome Chinese tourists in the near future. 

Vietnam is targeting 8 million international visitors and 102 million domestic tourists with a total revenue of about 650 trillion VND (27.5 billion USD) in 2023./. VNA