Tourism employees hit hard by Covid-19

Many people working in the tourism sector are trying to seek other work after being unemployed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many people working in the tourism sector are trying to seek other work after being unemployed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

  

Many hotels closed due to Covid-19

Summer is often one of the busiest times for the tourism sector. However, various activities have been halted and locations locked down amid the ongoing pandemic. Many employees in the tourism sector, especially tour guides, have to find other jobs to earn money.

Tour guide Do Hong Chi said, "I become a taxi driver or shipper or work at restaurants and cafe. I hope the outbreak will end soon so that I can return to my work which I really love."

Nhu Thi Ngan said her tour agency as well as many other agencies are struggling to get through the outbreak. "We used to have 100 office employees and 300 tour guides, not to mention part-time employees. But we have to cut a lot of staff since the start of the pandemic. At some point, we had to cut 80% of the staff."

According to many tour guides, they had a hard time accessing the government's support package for the unemployed.

Nguyen Thanh Hai, who moved from HCM City to Hanoi to work as a tour guide, said, "I saw a lot of my colleagues applied but they were not supported. I have to do many jobs to support myself now. Now I'm investing in handmade products and becoming a freelance entrepreneur."

Huynh Cong Chieu, vice chairman of HCM City Tour Guide Association, said, "The government hasn't considered the unique characteristics of the tourism sector. Besides tour guides who have contracts and work exclusively for a company, there are many freelancers. The freelancers will have a hard time proving that they are unemployed."

As of late 2019, 1.3 million people in the tourism sector became unemployed, accounting for 2.5% of the country's workforce.