according to a survey conducted by Google Asia Pacific about the travel concerns of tourists in Vietnam and the world in the future.

A floating restaurant in HCMC - PHOTO: DAO LOAN

Consequently, safety and hygiene are their top priorities.

“This means that even if countries are open, welcoming tourists without ensuring their safety does not work to stimulate tourism,” said Ha Lam Tu Quynh, Country Communications and PR Lead, Vietnam, Google Asia Pacific, during a recent training session on digital skills and digital marketing promotion organized by the Department of Tourism of HCMC and Google.

Quynh attributed this to the pandemic changing the interests of customers. So, businesses need to carefully study the new tastes of visitors. Currently, to many travelers, safety and hygiene are more important than the promotion of good food and wine.

Besides, at present, many businesses are trying to come up with new business plans to cope with the decline in the number of guests and market changes. However, Quynh said it would be unrealistic to develop a long-term plan at the moment while the development of the pandemic is still unknown.

“We would rather have short-term plans to meet the immediate needs of travelers,” she said.

According to information revealed by Google Asia Pacific, after the decline in March, the number of people interested in searching for information related to tourism increased in June 2020.

On Google search, although the number of tourism searches in the Vietnamese market was still lower than the same period last year, the figure doubled that of March.

On YouTube, especially, the number of people interested in tourism was higher than the period before the Covid-19 outbreak. The search volume, in particular, grew by 22%, while the amount of time spent watching clips on travel destinations increased by 11% and that of online tours increased by 60%. SGT

Dao Loan

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