Tourists arrive at Đà Nẵng Airport on Friday after a long period of lockdown. — VNA/VNS Photo

ĐÀ NẴNG — Đà Nẵng City, a travel hub in central Việt Nam, welcomed the first 500 MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and events) tourists on Friday after a long social distancing period in response to COVID-19 

This is the first group of tourists arriving in Đà Nẵng since it reopened to travellers.

Nguyễn Thị Hoài An, director of the city’s Tourism Promotion Centre, said the visitors were attending a national surgery and endoscopy conference, noting that the resumption of MICE tourism would help businesses and their clients be more confident in choosing Đà Nẵng as the destination for their events.

The successful reception of the MICE group will serve as an example of the safe and flexible adaptation to and effective control of COVID-19 for travel activities and event organisation at present, she added.

Jackie Han, deputy general director of the Hoà Bình Group - an organiser of the conference - said to ensure pandemic safety all the delegates at the event and the firm’s staff were required to be fully vaccinated, have safe travel history, move in different lanes, and practise the 5Ks: khẩu trang - wearing facemasks, khử khuẩn - disinfection, khoảng cách - keeping physical distance, khai báo  - making health declaration, không tụ tập - no gathering.

The national surgery and endoscopy conference will take place, both in person and via videoconference, on Friday and Saturday, with more than 1,000 delegates, including about 500 participating in-person.

It is considered a positive sign for Đà Nẵng's travel sector and the start of the MICE tourism season for late 2021 and early 2022. — VNS

Tourists receive flowers at the welcome ceremony. — VNA/VNS Photo