These are two of the forms of tourism that many people choose in the complicated context of the Covid-19 epidemic, because it helps to minimize contact when moving, relaxing, and experiencing.
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed awareness and social activities. Those who love to “travel”, have found ways to travel during the pandemic while still ensuring the principles of epidemic prevention and safety for themselves and the community. Meanwhile, people working in the tourism industry are not sitting idle waiting for the epidemic to pass, they also find many ways to “survive” by digital transformation and transformation of working forms.
Travel on “mobile homes”
Touchless travel right on family cars is a new trend during the epidemic season, especially for those who choose to travel on-site.
With this option, the owner will transform his family car into a mobihome (mobile home – with enough space to eat and rest) to travel everywhere with the whole family, mainly to places deserted, with no contact with anyone. At night, the whole family just needs to sleep in their car.
Luong Lam Son and his wife (34 years old, living in Hanoi) and Tran Thu Thao (32 years old) both share the same hobby of traveling and exploring, but when Covid-19 hit, both had to stay at home a lot. came up with the idea of turning a car into a “mobile home” for the whole family to travel around while still ensuring epidemic prevention.
Just like building a house, Son initially came up with the idea and decided to choose to buy an old car for overhaul and maintenance. In 15 days, he and his father-in-law converted the old car into a “house” with full amenities.
Since having this “mobile home”, Mr. Son’s family has made many trips during the epidemic season, of which the furthest and longest trip was to Ta Van village (SaPa, Lao Cai).
To minimize contact, Mr. Son chose a straight line from Hanoi to Sapa by the Hanoi – Lao Cai highway, during the process, he did not contact anyone along the way. At that time, Ta Van village was almost 99% indigenous people, there were no tourists, so it was very deserted.
His family lives in a farm stay with a stream, a garden, and a lot of vegetables, fruits and pets. Son excitedly said: “Our kids love playing with the animals here. In addition, the children also explore can break terraces, then bathe in streams with the children in the village as well as understand the culture here. The children can also stay away from phones and televisions.”
Like Mr. Son’s family, Mr. Huynh Ly Hung (Photographer, My Tho) also researched, designed and built the “mobile home” with enough beds, cabinets, shelves, and showers. .., taking his wife and children to travel everywhere during the epidemic season
Looking at the impressive set of pictures of the journeys on the mobihome – the “mobile home” of the Hung and his wife, few would expect… the father made sure to renovate it from an old Suzuki Wagon, 16 years old. – 17 years of use.
In early July 2020, Hung and his wife and 8-month-old son had their first trip on a “mobile home”.
The young father shared: The whole family went from My Tho to Tri An Lake, Phan Thiet, Da Lat, Vung Tau in 10 days. The journey back and forth is nearly 1,700 km long, with a gas cost of 1.4 million VND.
The car has full facilities, so the small family can stop the car at any beautiful natural scene they want, without contacting anyone.
“Arriving at a place with beautiful scenery, my wife and I stopped the car, set up camp, cooked together, enjoyed the scenery, played with our children and took pictures. The feeling is very free. If the weather is bad or worried about safety, I rent it. homestay nearby”, Mr. Hung said.
Open an online tour, let visitors explore Sapa through the screen
When the Covid-19 epidemic broke out and complicated developments, many localities had to implement distance, Vu Thi Ngoc Huong (1999) was born and raised in Ta Van commune, Sa Pa town (Lao Cai). Hanoi University of Science and Technology came up with the idea of making an online tour, introducing domestic tourists to famous tourist attractions in Sapa and Lao Cai on social networking platforms and online software such as Zoom, Google. Meet.
In early July, when she got the idea, the 22-year-old girl spent all her savings from working part-time to buy tools for making tours online. Direction to buy an old iPhone, a gimbal (anti-vibration handle), tripod and headset.
Although she has had experience in filming travel vlogs for nearly a year now, this young woman shares that she is still very nervous and worried. Destinations or experiences are selected by the Direction at the request of the majority of visitors and are suitable for the online form.
Before the tour is broadcast, Huong will spend a day on field trips, gather information to create a lead script, and provide tourists with fascinating and authentic knowledge and experiences.
With the tour to learn about Sa Pa ancient rock, Huong is divided into 2 parts, part 1 will introduce general information about the history, location, shape of the rock, the value of drawings on the ancient rock. In the second part, she talks more deeply about the stories behind the rock drawings, taking visitors to the exhibition area of the ancient stone carving station.
As for the tour to learn about the unique hot springs in Sa Pa, the Giay girl leads visitors to experience a very different corner of Sapa in terms of climate, scenery and human culture in the Ho village of the ethnic people. Tay. Learn interesting stories about the springs, especially the only hot spring in Sapa.
“Leading a live online tour encounters many difficulties, especially the weather, so I always have a backup plan. In addition, there are difficulties in connecting to the Internet, going to high mountain areas, the network is weak, so the picture is blurry or the sound is not. listen clearly. I will gradually find a way to fix it”, Huong shared.
To increase interaction, intertwine the lead process, she will ask guests how they feel and encourage people to ask questions for her to answer. Many visitors expressed their interest in Huong’s new way of doing things, especially during the epidemic season when everyone is restricting travel, being able to play through the phone screen is also a way to entertain and relieve pressure.
Besides the online experience tour according to the available schedule, Huong also accepts online guides for individuals or groups at the request of guests.
Bringing foreign tourists to explore Vietnam through the phone screen
After two years of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, in the gloomy general picture of the tourism industry, Le Hoang (27 years old) has “survived” by catching up with the trend of digital transformation and transforming the way of working.
Since March 2020, like many colleagues in the industry, Hoang has been unemployed due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. He mainly leads English-speaking international tourists, so when tourism “freezes”, Hoang’s working opportunities are very limited.
After researching online, Hoang came across a new online experiential platform that allows people to sell or participate in tours. From there, he came up with the idea of leading an online tour so that he could introduce beautiful Vietnam to everyone for free on the online travel platform. Le Hoang has conducted online tours to be able to introduce the image of Hanoi in particular and Vietnam in general to international tourists in the midst of the pandemic.
With a smartphone and a compact anti-vibration handle, every day, the 27-year-old tour guide can lead dozens of international tourists to Hanoi, experience the sounds of life, visit busy shopping streets or enjoy a cup of coffee the way Hanoians do.
Tours to the old town, discover Hanoi’s street food… have received thousands of followers from European countries or the US, Canada over the past 1 year.
Along with vivid images of life, Hoang integrated into it the history of formation and development, recreating heroic and proud memories of the thousand-year-old capital.
“The online tour is also much different from the live tour guide, that is, people watch online through computer screens so they can verify that what they say is true or not. That’s why I have to know the truth. About the tour or the place I lead. Every day I do about 2 online tours”, Hoang shared.
Also according to Hoang’s share, the tour to visit the small alleys in Hanoi attracts a lot of people’s attention. “The fact that Hanoians live in a small alley with deep, entangled electricity makes many people surprised and curious. Each alley sells unique items that also make European and American tourists find it interesting. can take tourists to visit Hang Ma street or Tam Thuong alley …”, Hoang said.
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