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This paper qualitatively assesses COVID-19's impact on the tourism industry in Vietnam and the Vietnamese government and tourism industry's responses to the pandemic. It includes data from government media sources, semi-structured interviews with 30 managers of travel enterprises, and two group discussions with 50 representatives of tourism and hospitality businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Its findings indicate that Vietnam's tourism sector responded passively in the first stages of the pandemic and then responded reactively and successfully alongside the Vietnamese government's planned re-opening of society and the economy. In particular, it shows how government authorities and tourism companies are implementing strategies to encourage domestic tourism and boost the sector's economic recovery. This paper also explores how various tourism stakeholders in Vietnam (a) see the pandemic as an opportunity to restructure various practices and yet (b) have not prepared contingency plans and long-term strategies to help prevent and mitigate the risks to the industry posed by future crises. This paper concludes by reflecting on how the pandemic illustrates the need for proactive efforts to prepare reduction and readiness strategies and draw up initiatives for long-term development of tourism in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic variation in tumor virus genes and its impact on function might contribute to the understanding of geographic differences in risks for virus-associated tumors. This is particularly true for the genes known to contribute to the biology of the tumor. It is has been proposed that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gene variation has a role in the high risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in South-East Asia. NPC is among the five most common cancers in Vietnam. EBV-NPC cells always express EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) and also frequently latent membrane protein 1 and 2 (LMP1 & LMP2). To investigate EBV gene variation in Vietnamese NPC patients we analyzed the full length of LMP1 gene including its promoter region, and the N-termini of both EBNA1 and LMP2A genes from five NPC biopsies. We detected two EBV variants V1 and V2 based on the LMP1 nucleotide sequence pattern compared with the prototype B95-8 and some available sequences including Chinese variants. The V1 variant shows strong similarity to a variant dominant in Southern China (China 1), while the V2 variant is similar to a Thai variant SEA 2 and partly identity with GD1 in the C-terminus. The promoter region and transmembrane domain of the SEA 2-like samples contained some specific differences compared with previously published variants. In contrast, analysis of EBNA1 N- and LMP2A N-termini only revealed minor changes. Our findings reinforces that the polymorphisms of whole LMP1 sequence should be considered in future EBV molecular epidemiology studies in different geographic populations.