Vietnam’s tourism suffers $89.29mn loss from fish death crisis
Vietnam’s tourism suffers $89.29mn loss from fish death crisis
Vietnam has incurred more than VND2 trillion (US$89.29 million) worth of tourist revenue losses due to the environmental disaster in the central region in April, the country’s tourism watchdog said Friday.
The massive losses are recorded in five central provinces directly affected by the fish deaths caused by the local steel plant of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group, the Vietnam National Administration on Tourism (VNAT) said at a meeting to review Vietnam’s tourism industry in the first ten months of 2016.
Quang Binh took the hardest blow, losing VND1.5 trillion in tourist revenue, while the respective figures for Nghe An and Quang Tri are VND526 billion and 250 billion. The provinces of Ha Tinh and Thua Thien-Hue each incurred VND50 million in losses.
“The tourism industries of these five central provinces suffered so greatly from the direct damage of the environmental crisis that it would take a lot of time before they can make a full recovery,” VNAT chief Nguyen Van Tuan said.
Vietnam welcomed eight million foreign tourists and 53 million domestic ones the first ten months of 2016, who contributed over VND330 trillion ($14.73 billion) to the country’s tourist revenue, according to VNAT statistics released at the same meeting.
A program aimed at issuing visas for foreign tourists online, scheduled to begin 2017 as directed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was also brought up during the event.
According to the plan, tourists can apply for and obtain a visa to Vietnam online starting January 1, 2017, which the tourism industry hopes to make Vietnam a more appealing destination for foreign travelers.
