HCMCity (VNA) - Over 200delegates from 27 member cities of the Tourism Promotion Organization forAsian-Pacific Cities (TPO) gathered in Ho Chi Minh City for the 8th TPO forum themed “Smart tourism” which opened on June 21.
 
The event focused on solutions to improve tourism development capacity of TPO membercities. It also aims to help delegates develop initiatives and new strategiesto promote the tourism sector’s development amidst the fourth industrialrevolution. 

In his opening speech, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee LeThanh Liem expressed the city’s honour of hosting the event.

The number of foreign tourists visiting HCM City in recent years has accountedfor 50 percent of those arriving in Vietnam, contributing 30 percent to thecountry’s tourism turnover and 10 percent of the city’s GRDP, he revealed.

Asia Pacific is considered a key market for the city’s tourism sector as thenumber of visitors from the region visiting HCM City always remains stableamong the top markets, he noted.

The forum will help TPO member cities access solutions to applying IT andcommunication in tourism activities – which is an inevitable trend in the eraof digital technology, and learn from experience of each other in building neworientations and models in tourism management well as in fine-tuning thequality of tourism services, thus improving their destinations’ competitiveness.

Shin Yeon-Sung, TPO Secretary General said with advantages in terms of geographicallocation, history, and friendly and hospitable residents, HCM City has beenmaking strides forward in tourism development.

He expressed his belief that the event creates a good chance for participantsto jointly discuss and share experience in how to further push tourismdevelopment in the region, especially smart tourism through applying IT.

Participant pointed out the fact that the world is entering the 4.0 industrialrevolution, with strong impacts on the fields of economy, culture, society,health and education and tourism as well.

Perry Hobson from Taylor University of Malaysiasaid thanks to technology, the development of smart tourism helps visitors accesseasily tourism services by smart phones connected to Internet.

TPO is an international organisation establishedin 2002 at the 5th Asian-Pacific City Summit. TPO was designed to be aninter-city network to promote the exchanges and development of the tourismindustry among major cities in the Asia Pacific region. 

HCM City is a co-founder and member of theExecutive Board. Currently, the organisation consists of 86 cities, and 45travel agencies and institutes and other tourism organisations from 10Asia-Pacific countries and territories.

The TPO forum is held every two years.-VNA