Skies begin to open up for travel with vaccine passports

The famous Golden Bridge near Danang will be one tourist attraction hoping for an opening of borders

Currently, Vietnam still applies a 14-day quarantine rule for guests and immigrants, including those who have been vaccinated. Overseas Vietnamese doctor Calvin Trinh was the first Vietnamese person to receive two doses of the vaccine in the United States, and arrived at Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City on March 10. Despite having a vaccine passport, Trinh still had to be isolated for 14 days, according to the regulations.

At the meeting of the government with localities on COVID-19 prevention and control last week, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned relevant authorities to consider appropriate control measures for when Vietnam accepts vaccine passports and reopens international routes.

This may help enhance the position of Vietnam’s economy and contribute to the recovery of industries that are severely affected by the pandemic, such as aviation and tourism.

The PM said that a part of people and businesses, especially transport, services, and tourism businesses, are facing many difficulties. Therefore, Vietnam will actively implement additional support measures, formulate appropriate policies, and restore affected industries.

The request was made by the PM after receiving a petition from the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board in early March regarding vaccine passports. Immediately afterwards, the PM requested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study the issue and related experiences from other countries to make further proposals to the government.

The vaccine passport is planned to be a digital document proving that an individual has been vaccinated against the coronavirus. This document could be stored on a phone or a digital wallet, and the data displayed in the form of a QR code which could also provide information on whether a person has tested negative for the virus.

Responding to the PM at the regular meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control last Thursday, ministries and mobile networks reaffirmed that the neccessary technical infrastructure to keep track of and hand out vaccination certificates for foreigners would be ready to implement from April.

According to the World Tourism Organization, applying vaccination certificates will be an important tool to respond to the pandemic and promote a safe restart of international tourism. The European Commission last week issued proposals for a digital green certificate as well as a proof that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result, or has recovered from the virus. The certificate will be valid in all EU member states and open to EU citizens and their family members, regardless of their nationality.

Thailand also announced plans to issue vaccine passports and reduce the quarantine period for vaccinated people to seven days.

However, with legal and technological obstacles, the World Health Organization has called on countries to be cautious about the different types of vaccine passports and require the authorities and tourism regulators to not consider proof of vaccination as a condition for international travel.

Besides continuing to apply strict prevention measures, it may be necessary to continue vaccinations and speed up research and production, authorities have said.

The effective control of COVID-19 is deemed an advantage for the domestic tourism industry to be able to welcome foreign tourists, hopefully from the beginning of the third quarter of this year.

Nguyen Ngoc Bich-CEO, Crystal Holidays Thailand is planning to deploy vaccinations to all people on Phuket to create immunity within that community, and then start promoting and opening the doors to welcome international tourists. In Vietnam, Phu Quoc Island also possesses a lot of potential to develop under this model because of its isolated location. As the island’s population is not too large, this favourite tourist destination for many foreign tourists with many high-end travel services may soon be the first to open its doors. If the government supports this initiative and calls on major tourism groups in Vietnam to coordinate experimental tourism on Phu Quoc, I think it can be done. But what makes me wonder is whether the vaccines are really safe. According to experts, it takes 24-36 months for human trials to evaluate the effectiveness. The tourism industry is still working on a safer option, so the vaccine passport, although opening up new opportunities, is currently facing some issues and there is no consensus from governments. Nguyen Cong Hoan - CEO, Flamingo Redtours The vaccine passport is meant as a certificate to show that a person no longer carries the virus in his body. So, when we go abroad to do anything, we must have a negative test certificate for COVID-19. This certificate is only valid for a short period of time, but the vaccination certificate is valid for the long term and there is no possibility of further infection. I think it will replace the temporary certificate. Certainly, when many people have these passports and travel more smoothly, tourism will also have a better chance of recovery. While some countries force tourists to quarantine for 14 days when they enter the country, after returning home they have to quarantine for another 14 days. Thus, the creation of the real demand for tourism is almost impossible. No one wants to travel and be isolated like that. When someone owns this passport without being forced to quarantine, the demand for travel will increase. Nguyen Van Tai-CEO, VietSense Travel The vaccine passport is a suitable solution at this stage to accelerate tourism development. In addition to tourism, other international industries are also implementing measures such as working with negative test results. The number of injections remain low right now. So if based on that, it is not an absolutely safe option. There needs to be another option, such as combining with current prevention regulations of anti-pandemic forces as recommended by the Ministry of Health. Then, we can promote tourism development.