Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said on November 30 during a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT) as well as experts and tourist firms on the compilation of the project.Dam said that the project must basically deal with each issue, such as tourism promotion, transportation, immigration procedures and management of destinations to ensure a safe tourism environment.
The restructuring project of tourism industry must define Vietnam’s key tourist areas.
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In the development of tourism products, relevant ministries and agencies need to determine who will do these works and how to mobilized and use the investment capital resource effectively.
Dam required the VNAT to promptly seek recommendations from experts and tourist firms to be able to complete the project specifically.
The Politburo’s Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW on developing the tourism industry into a spearhead economic sector sets a target of welcoming 17-20 million foreign arrivals and 82 million domestic tourists by 2020, whilst earning a total revenue of US$35 billion, contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP, and creating 4 million jobs, including 1.6 million direct jobs.
Accordingly, in order to meet the goal, the tourism industry must achieve a growth rate of 15 to 20 percent each year, requiring the industry to make great efforts, especially in tourism promotion, to create breakthroughs in attracting visitors.
However, industry insiders said that it take the country’s tourism promotion difficult to create breakthroughs due to limited budget expenditure.
According to Forbes magazine, Thailand's national tourism promotion budget is US$69 million per year and the amount in Malaysia and Indonesia is US$ 105 million and US$ 200 million, respectively. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s national tourism promotion budget is only US$2 million per year which is too low compared to the other ASEAN countries and others within the region.
Vu The Binh, Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said that within the confines of the budget, the Vietnam tourism industry cannot do enough.
The limited budget has limited the use and exploitation of the popular and effective tourism promotion activities in the world, such as creating impressive forms for the national pavilions at international fairs, and advertising the national tourism sector in foreign media.
According to Luu Duc Ke, Director of Hanoitourist Travel Company, Vietnam does not have an office abroad, which is the most knowledgeable force in the market, to promote on-the-spot tourism, meanwhile Thailand has 27 representative offices; Singapore has 23 offices; and Malaysia has 35 offices abroad.
Therefore, over recent years, information on Vietnam’s tourism for overseas visitors has not been adequate; promotion activities in many countries lack specific information about specific products in order to serve tourists in each key market.
