Bad weather shaking, crowds of tourists ‘Evacuate’ Sa Pa

Sa Pa City is an attractive newcomer to the world of tourism. However, the bad weather that happened in Vietnam caused a loss of tourists again.

Reporting from VN Express on Saturday (2/10), hotels and restaurants in Vietnam’s northern mountain destinations experienced a decline in revenue of up to 80% due to bad weather.

Some food service establishments have temporarily closed because their income can no longer cover operating costs and others have been forced to lay off workers.

Guest house owners in Sa Pa are starting to find it difficult to maintain their business. Everything was done, but the bad weather made tourists reluctant.

“Even with discounts between 20% and 50%, orders are still scarce. “

Pham Cao Vy, chairman of the Tourism Association of Lao Cai Province, recognized the problems facing the tourism industry in the region. He said occupancy rates in Sa Pa fell 85% from a year earlier in September.

Popular tourist spots in Sa Pa such as Cat Cat Village and Rong May Glass Bridge also saw a drop in visitor numbers in October.

Nguyen Trung Kien, a representative of the Cat Cat tourism area, said news of the landslide had triggered a domino effect, affecting the entire tourism industry.

Not only Sa Pa, the cities of Ha Giang and Yen Bai also saw a significant decline.

Nguyen Quang Huy, who owns an accommodation facility in Ha Giang Town, said that there had been a shortage of guests for over a month, and that only a few foreign visitors were staying overnight.

“Guests who canceled or rescheduled their tickets in September due to the effects of Typhoon Yagi did not return.”

Lao Cai province, where Sa Pa is located, experienced 14 landslides in September and Ha Giang experienced two serious landslides.

Minh Tan, 33, from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) had planned a family trip to Ha Giang in mid-October to visit rice fields in Hoang Su Phi District and explore the Nho Que River and Tu San Alley .

However, after a landslide in Bac Quang District on October 1, he canceled the trip.

Dang Quoc Su, director of the Ha Giang Tourism Promotion Center, said tourism’s slow recovery was largely due to tourists’ concerns about landslides.

One month after the typhoon in early September, most accommodation and restaurants in Sa Pa and Ha Giang have restored their facilities in preparation for the resumption of tourism, but unpredictable weather is still an obstacle to that.

“We hope that the tourism industry in the area will recover in the last two months of this year,” he concluded.

(bln/bln)