Tourists were seen at the Tan Thanh Flea Market in Hoi An City before the pandemic hit the country. Hundreds of travel and hotel businesses in Quang Nam Province have been severely affected by Covid-19 and have written to the local authorities seeking a suspension - PHOTO: NHAN TAM

QUANG NAM - Severely affected by Covid-19, hundreds of travel and accommodation businesses in Quang Nam Province have written to the local authorities requesting a suspension of their operations in the latter half of 2021 to ease their tax burden.

June 2 was the deadline for the Hoi An Tax Department in Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province, to receive suspension requests from businesses. Thus, yesterday, the agency received several requests from the corporate members of the Homestay & Villas Society, Quang Nam Tourism Association.

Pham Thi Linh Chi, the society’s chairwoman, also applied for a suspension of her Mr. My Tho Garden Villas business. “We have managed to carry on so far despite the Covid-19 pandemic,” Chi said. “Now that we have not been able to find guests as Covid-19 is still raging worldwide.”

Such difficulties have forced businesses to apply for a suspension of their business activities to get tax exemptions and wait for support.

The difficulty of accommodation businesses is only a small part of the entire Quang Nam tourism industry.

According to information from the Quang Nam Tourism Association (QTA), from the beginning of 2020 until now, Covid-19 has delivered a severe blow to the tourism sector. Visitors and tourism revenue have nosedived, at more than 80%. Over 90% of tourism businesses have suspended operations. Some 14,000 workers in the tourism industry have lost their jobs and the industry has reported losses of more than VND12,000 billion.

"I think the situation could get worse in the second half of this year,” said Nguyen Son Thuy, general secretary of QTA, adding that his travel company and hotel – Indochina Unique Tourist and Earth Villa – have been closed for the time being.

“We have tried to run various promotion programs but back-to-back Covid-19 outbreaks have made all of our efforts useless. Enterprises cannot survive the prolonged on-and-off situation due to bank debt, loan interest, failure to retain workers, among others,” said Thuy. “Therefore, many businesses are choosing to suspend their operations to cut losses.”

Thuy said to solve the problem, QTA is planning to organize a seminar to find financial solutions for tourism businesses. They will invite representatives from banks, investment funds and investment partners as well as tourism businesses, to find long-term financial solutions for tourism businesses to pull themselves out of the Covid-19 crisis.

“We expect vaccinations to be rolled out extensively in the population so that tourism can recover in a safe and stable way,” said Thuy.