Though Vietnam might only report 16 cases of coronavirus so far, the impact is far greater than that. For instance, viewing the economic impact, Hanoi suffers a lot.
Particularly, in travel and tourism, the country states that it will suffer more in either short or long term. Accordingly, this is for a third of its foreign tourists come from China.
Considering the prediction, World Tourism Organization argues that it is too early to measure the impact of COVID-19 to the tourism sector. However, Vietnamese authorities have begun to calculate the possible lost in the sector.
“In three months, the estimated direct damage to Vietnam’s tourism industry could reach between USD 3 and USD 4 billion,” a representative for Vietnam’s department of tourism said.
Previously, Hanoi had witnessed the 16.2% increase of tourists from 2018 to 2019. With China banning flights and Vietnam prohibiting Chinese tourists, it might once again decrease the trajectory significantly.
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The Worse Economic Impact of Coronavirus to Vietnam
In Vietnam, tourism is not the only sector that suffers from the coronavirus outbreak. Other industrial sectors as well as education also undergo the similar experience.
“Vietnam is suffering economically, but less than China,” said chief economist at Hanoi’s Mekong Economics Adam McCarty. “Schools remain closed, tourists are too few, and workers, maybe 20%, are underemployed due to virus-caused declines in demand and Chinese inputs.”
Many factories in Vietnam need imports of raw materials from China. To be specific, the country relies on China for approximately 30% of its imports.
Also, when the outbreak started, the country had to prolong Lunar New Year holiday. That said, this means that education and industries halt their activities for additional periods that were out of plans.
In addition, transportation sector is currently having a decline of income as well. The state-owned Vietnam Railways reports that its revenue in the first 19 days of February fell by USD 2.8 million in comparison to the same period in 2019. Accordingly, most of it was due to refunding roughly 40,000 unused tickets.
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