Improving Efficiency in Tourism Promotion

To achieve the goal of international visitor growth of at least 30 percent in 2017 set by the Government, Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam suggested the tourism sector mobilise all resources and implement promotion solutions to attract international visitors in the last 5 months. This is the information shared by Mr Ai at the Tourism Promotion Conference in 2017 held by Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recently in Hanoi.

Vietnam's tourism industry welcomed more than 10 million international arrivals in 2016 and over 7.2 million international arrivals in the first seven months of 2017. The direct contribution of tourism to GDP in 2016 was approximately 6.9 percent. Mr Ai stressed the role of tourism in the national economy, noting that in many countries, tourism has become a "salvation" for the economy when facing difficulties. In Vietnam, the tourism industry is receiving favourable conditions when the Politburo has identified tourism as the key economic sector of the country.

Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Mr Ha Van Sieu said that VNAT annually participates in major international tourism fairs in key markets; In collaboration with the Vietnam Tourism Association and localities to hold two main domestic fairs which are VITM (Hanoi) and ITE (Ho Chi Minh City); Maintain famtrips, press trips and roadshows in key markets; Develop advertising programmes on the media, promote e-marketing, and coordinate with partners such as VNtrip, VTVgo to organise photo competitions, unique travel experience, etc. Besides, tourism promotion also takes place through events such as the "National Tourism Year", and broadcasting on publications, souvenirs.

On the exchange of public-private partnerships in the promotion of tourism in Vietnam, Mr Hoang Nhan Chinh, Director of the Travel Advisory Board (TAB) Secretariat, said that although tourism in Vietnam has achieved many impressive results, the sector has also encountered much congestion. According to the TAB study, Vietnam ranks sixth among ASEAN countries in terms of direct tourism contribution to GDP. On the budget for national tourism promotion, Mr Hoang Nhan Chinh said that the current budget for advertising tourism in Vietnam is only US$2 million per year, this is very low compared with other ASEAN countries. Another limitation of Vietnam's tourism is that there are no tourism promotion agencies and no representative offices in some key markets. These are the difficulties that directly affect the promotion and tourism in Vietnam, especially in foreign markets.

Also in this regard, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, Vu The Binh, said that the Tourism Development Assistance Fund should be set up soon and the fund management mechanism should be set up in a rational way for promotional activities. Mr Binh emphasised the importance of professionalism in tourism promotion, so it is necessary to set up an agency responsible for tourism promotion at the national level. At the same time, we should promote training to improve labour in the sector, as well as attract experts involved in this field.

The conference also noted many opinions of localities and enterprises related to the construction and development of tourism products such as developing cruise tourism products; Promote attracting tourists in markets near the end of the year (Northeast Asia, ASEAN); Support key tourism destinations (such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, etc) to build visitor support centres, and; Develop training programmes, improve professional qualifications and skills for human resources in tourism.

General Director of the VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan highly appreciated comments by delegates. Mr Tuan said that tourism promotion and promotion is one of the key activities to fulfil the growth target assigned by the Government. Mr Tuan also expressed his consensus on the idea of strengthening public-private partnerships, cooperation among ministries, agencies from central to local levels; Mobilising resources; Unifying the promotion of the national tourism brand; Focusing on attracting visitors from key markets such as Northeast Asia, ASEAN, Western Europe, Russia, North America; Improving professionalism and efficiency in promotion, promoting the use of e-marketing, and building a database for tourism promotion.

Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai noted the candid contribution of localities and businesses. Deputy Minister Ai also suggested that the industry focus on implementing solutions to achieve the target of passenger growth in 2017, focusing on localities and enterprises to carefully study the 2017 and 2018 promotion plan of VNAT to register for participation. The VNAT organises the preliminary review of the implementation of three strategies: tourism marketing, development of Vietnam tourism brand, development of tourism products in Vietnam; Study and propose the establishment of a specialized agency for tourism promotion; Develop steering mechanism, coordinate activities of local tourism promotion centres; Integrate the contents of the introduction of tourism in the external activities of localities; Promote the application of technology, apply a variety of tools to improve the efficiency of promotion, and; Strengthen cooperation between agencies, localities and enterprises.

He also asked the VNAT to synthesize comments from delegates at the conference to report to the leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is an important basis for developing solutions and launch promotion activities in the future.

In the coming time, the tourism industry is to focus on implementing four groups of measures to promote international visitor growth in the last five months of the year, including: Promoting tourism promotion activities in potential areas; Strengthening destination management, diversifying and improving the quality of tourism services; Enhancing air connections, and; Speeding up the implementation of programmes to promote international tourists.

Thanh Nga