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COVER STORY

In a better place

The tourism sector may see its recovery slowed by former employees
preferring to stay in new jobs they secured elsewhere after finding
themselves out of work last year.

T HOA LAN reportS

ew people working in the tourism recover, we teamed up to do something differ- man of the TAB, said it is interesting to note
industry have been able to escape the ent to support ourselves and our families.” that while the official unemployment rate
F fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. has not risen significantly in 2020, there has
Mr. Hoang Anh, a 28-year-old tour guide in Challenge from change been a big reduction in the number of people
Hanoi, left his job back in April when Vietnam Data from the Tourism Advisory Board employed in the tourism sector, whether
closed its borders. “It was hard for the first (TAB) reveals that Vietnam’s tourism workforce through lost jobs or furlough arrangements.
couple of weeks because money was tight totals 4.9 million people. The pandemic, though, “It is further estimated that Vietnam’s tourism
and I would just sit at home,” he said. He has put a major hole in this figure. Eighteen industry lost over $20 billion, or more than
then found work selling insurance. per cent of travel companies have laid off all 65 per cent, of projected revenues in 2020,”
Ms. Ngoc Giang, who has a two-year-old employees, and nearly half (48 per cent) have he said. “Some tourism workers have
travel startup in Nha Trang, stopped paying furloughed from 50 to 80 per cent. In Hanoi, undoubtedly found new work and many will
herself when the pandemic first broke out. the number of travel industry workers taking have returned home to their families in the
She was forced to find ways to retain her temporary leave or being terminated stands provinces and rural areas. The impact will
staff, by selling a range of different products at somewhere between 50 and 90 per cent. be different for different locations.”
on e-commerce platforms. “It’s been a tough Commenting on the trend, Mr. Kenneth Hanoi hotels have been very badly hit,
time but I wanted to keep my employees and Atkinson, Founder and Senior Board Adviser as have tourist destinations like Da Nang
my business,” she said. “With tourism yet to at Grant Thornton Vietnam and Vice Chair- and Nha Trang, while popular spots within

18 | VIETNAM ECONOMIC TIMES | FEBRUARY 2021