Foreign visitors at Hue Citadel in Hue City, Thua Thien-Hue Province (Source: VNA) Q:What are the most notable successes of the Vietnam Tourism sector in 2016?
A:The high number of foreign tourists visiting our country. It was the first timewe welcomed 10 million foreign visitors, along with 62 million Vietnamesetourists. As a result, tourism revenue reached a record 400 trillion VND (17.73billion USD) and generated more than 1.7 million jobs.
Thedevelopment of the tourism sector has also created a push for related economicsectors to develop, including commerce and transportation.
However,in the 2016 global survey on tourism competitiveness, our tourist industry onlyranked 75 out of 141 participating countries. With such an internationalranking, Vietnam needs to do a lot more to attract foreign tourists,particularly through its Law on Tourism - the revised version of which isexpected to be adopted by the National Assembly soon.
Q:In your opinion, what were the key reasons for the 2016 success?
A:The most important factor was the remarkable effort by all staff in theindustry over many years, particularly in 2016, starting with action plans andpolicies formulated by the central Government, down to the grass roots level.All 63 provinces and cities have come up with their own specific plans andtourism products in order to attract more tourists.
Ifin the past, a tour across two or three provinces or several regions was notlisted on many tour programmes, in 2016 it became popular and was highlyappreciated by the tourists.
Thesecond success I should mention was the Government’s decision to give visawaivers to tourists from certain countries and to Overseas Vietnamese. Thispolicy has been described as a major breakthrough that led to the increase intourism.
Andlast but not least, Vietnam is a safe destination for foreign tourists in thecontext of instabilities in the world.
Q:According to the Asia Pacific Tourism Association, only some 6 percent oftourists return to Vietnam after their first time. Does the data tell you anything?
A:I was a little bit upset. It is a good lesson for us and we should thinkpositively. If the purpose of a tour is just sightseeing, we will go to thatplace one time only and reserve our time and money to explore other places.
Inother words, whether the visitors come back or not, depends on several factors.But in this case, we have to carry out a deep analysis to see whether tours arecarefully arranged and conducted and whether the tourists were happy with them.
Inmy opinion, we should also arrange different forms of tourism like conventionand exhibition tourism, or seminar tourism, shopping tourism and others.
Q:Do you have any comments on the Party Politburo resolution on turning thetourism sector into a key economic industry?
A:I can’t agree more with the goal set in the document.
However,from the perspective of a researcher, in order to turn the tourism sector intoa key economic industry accounting for 10 percent of the GDP, there are quite alot of things we have to do.
In2016, as I have mentioned, our tourism industry ranked 75 of 141 countriesparticipating in a survey on its competitive edge. Frankly speaking, ourranking is even lower than Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
Q:In your opinion, what must the tourism industry do to achieve the goals set bythe Party’s Resolution?
A:I don’t think the tourism sector can do by itself. It needs support from thewhole of society and active participation of all sectors. The second point Iwant to mention is the imperative to change the concept of tourism development.Until now, when we talk about tourism development, the first and foremost wemention is the number of visitors. It is high time for us to look at anotherfactor – the growth quality.
Thegrowth quality means that tourists’ stay is longer and their spending higher;or that tours are providing more jobs. That’s why in my opinion, tourism mustbe developed to be sustainable, not for the sake of a running competition.-VNA
VNA
