Under a “travel bubble” tour, visitors would mostly take part in outdoor activities such as exploring mangrove forests and rivers and only have close contact with members of their package tour.
All tourists, guides, drivers, operators, and logistics workers at tourism sites must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and test negative, while closely following the Ministry of Health’s “5K message”.
The model is being applied on two tours to Can Gio and Cu Chi in the city.
Bubble tours are initially being offered to frontline COVID-19 workers.
“This is the first time I have visited this place. It’s interesting to take a river tour and taste local seafood, said Dr Trinh Tien Dung from the Central Hospital 71 in Thanh Hoa province. “I’ll try some crab fishing later on.”
For many travel companies, “travel bubble” tours like this would a positive move to kick-start their business.
The most stringent requirements of a “travel bubble” are strictly following pandemic prevention regulations, all visitors having “green cards”, and destinations being “green zones”.
Nguyen Minh Man, Media Director from the TST Tourist Service and Trading Corporation, said: “We will look at the efficiency of a travel bubble and try to make it more suitable in safely adapting to the pandemic.”
The “travel bubble” model is currently only designed for tourists in Ho Chi Minh City. The local tourism sector and travel companies are now rushing to develop new tours and tourism products while expanding “travel bubble” activities to elsewhere.
“We will develop overnight tours to promote local tourism while improving fishing trips in the district,” said Nguyen Van Hong, Chairman of the Can Gio District People’s Committee in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City will apply the “travel bubble” model until the end of this year to restore its tourism activities. An expansion of regional tourism and a shared travel policy among localities will be significant in fully recovering the spearhead economic sector./.
