Can Domestic Tourism Demand Play a Main Driver for the Post-pandemic Recovery Strategy? Evidence from Vietnam

Over the past two decades, tourism in Vietnam has seen unprecedented growth, and it is now one of the country’s most important economic drivers. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has halted this growth trend, and between 2020 and 2021, Vietnam’s tourism industry suffered significant losses. Nonetheless, there are encouraging signs as the domestic tourism market played a significant role in Vietnam’s tourism industry’s recovery in 2022. Now that the pandemic has ended, the tourism industry must adjust its development strategy to enter a new phase. The purpose of this article is to perform an analysis of the development scenario of Vietnam’s tourism industry over the past few years, perform an analysis of possibilities and obstacles, and provide some solutions for Vietnam’s tourism industry in the post-pandemic period in the near future. The novel contribution that this paper makes is to present evidence that the demand for domestic tourism can be leveraged as a significant driver for the tourism industry to rebound after it has been affected by the crisis.