Facing that fact, the culture, sports and tourism sector has proactively changed the tourism development strategy with a view to ensuring safety for both local residents and visitors.

Nguyen Hoang Long, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said to help the tourism sector surmount difficulties amid the pandemic, the department has included knowledge about COVID-19 prevention and control in training courses for grassroots-level cadres and providers of travel and accommodation services.

Besides, it has asked travel companies to step up digital application and make self-assessment of their COVID-19 safety levels via the website https://safe.tourism.com.vn, which enables them to register for COVID-19 safety certificates. This website also helps tourists easily find out safe destinations like restaurants, hotels, entertainment places, hospitals, or pharmacies and report problems they face to authorities.

The department has also coordinated with the Health Department to set up inter-sectoral teams to examine the adherence to legal regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control at tourist establishments, Long noted.

In addition, it has worked to carry out a joint project on supporting local tourism development between Yen Bai and Val-de-Marne province of France, published 3,000 publications advertising local tourism, and discussed the organisation of cooperation activities with eight northwestern provinces and Ho Chi Minh City to boost tourism.

Thanks to proactive and creative measures, Yen Bai welcomed about 593,700 visitors and earned 339.6 billion VND (15 million USD) in revenue in the first nine months of 2021.

In the time ahead, the culture, sports and tourism sector will step up communications to raise public awareness, stimulate travel demand to attract tourists within the province and from other localities safe from the pandemic, and encourage tourism businesses to discount service prices.