Covid-19: Vietnam to open resort island to vaccinated foreign tourists

Hanoi - Phu Quoc, which boasts white sand beaches, mountains and thick jungles, will take in international visitors later this year

Vietnam plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to vaccinated foreign visitors in late November, authorities said, as the country looks to reboot its tourism industry after almost two years of closure.

Phu Quoc, which lies around 10 kilometres (six miles) off Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, boasts white-sand beaches and crystal clear waters, as well as mountains and thick jungle.

It attracted around 670,000 visitors and earned more than $18 billion dollars from international arrivals in 2019, with authorities hoping to turn it into a tourist mecca in the style of Thailand’s Phuket or Indonesia’s Bali.

From November 20, “charter flights” for international travellers with vaccine passports will be welcomed to the island, the government said late Friday.

After that, between late December and the end of March, the island aims to receive up to 5,000 foreign arrivals on similar charter flights.

Tourists will need to show vaccine certificates together with a negative Covid-19 test result before being allowed in.

According to authorities, they should come from places with “a high safety record on Covid-19 prevention, like some parts of Europe, the Middle East, North East Asia, Southeast Asia, North America and Australia”.

A previous plan to open Phu Quoc to international visitors in October was abandoned due to low vaccination rates among residents.

The announcement comes after Thailand said vaccinated travellers from more than 40 countries will be allowed to enter the kingdom without undergoing quarantine come November 1.