Tourism Beaten By COVID-19 For 2 Years, Vietnam Now Removes Quarantine Period For Immigrants

JAKARTA - Vietnam has ended the quarantine period for all international travelers starting today, Wednesday 16 March. They are trying to restart the tourism industry after being battered by two years of strict COVID-19 restrictions.

Reporting from The Strait Times, the only requirement for visitors who want to come is to report a negative COVID-19 test result.

Revenue from the tourism sector for Vietnam exceeded US$32 billion in the year before the pandemic. And it all came to a halt during the pandemic as the government restricted travel.

Virus restrictions have been slowly relaxed in recent months. Tourists have been pouring in since November to play golf at the resort, under a bubble setting.

Vietnam also announced the resumption of 15-day visa-free travel for nationals of 13 countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus.

The country, which has a population of 97 million, was still reporting nearly 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day as the Omicron variant spread.

But the health ministry said the situation was "remaining under control" with hospitalization and death rates remaining low.