Vietnam closed its borders early in 2020 and to say it has been a challenging time for the tourism industry here is an understatement. Whilst we monitor cases and eagerly wait for our borders to reopen to international guests once more, we have ridden the COVID rollercoaster of ups and downs. This has meant adapting and rising to the challenge.

In Country Tours needed to shift our focus to domestic travel and we have been helping whoever we can, however we can through this hard time. Keeping eyes on experiences we can still offer now and going forward has been a challenge as everyone downsizes, adjusts, and sometimes closes.  Only through heartfelt and honest two-way communication, empathy, sympathy and compromise have we been able to rise to the challenge.

Over the last year we have been providing English support, delivering domestic tours, networking, monitoring, communicating and developing new experiences as much as possible. The industry buzz and energy has been returning as vaccinations roll out across different countries. Vietnam has started its vaccination journey with some tiers already receiving their vaccines. Vietnam’s own ‘Nanovax’ vaccine is expected to be added to the options for rollout late summer. Border entry in conjunction with vaccine passports and quarantine policy is being discussed and we are waiting on the decision(s) and guidance to be announced.

Over the next year and beyond we are moving more out of our comfort zone as we bring our team back up to full strength. We are now expanding our journey adding sustainable travel to our survival and recovery strategy. We have always focused on responsible travel, but the pandemic has taught us that this is no longer enough and we can dive in more to be there and help.

There is no overnight solution, and the road will be complex but rewarding. It is the right way to move forward to our next chapter. Khoa has been engaged in an international training course to learn as much as possible about this incredibly important objective. We are building our strategy going forward for sustainable management, socioeconomic impacts, cultural impacts and environmental impacts.

We are excited to wake up every day knowing we are working hard on making a difference, bringing our guests meaningful experiences, and building up our team and our Vietnam.

See you soon!

By Khoa & Michelle Nguyen

Owners of In Country Tours

In Country Tours is the destination management company that Kaanect Travel uses when building guest itineraries in Vietnam.