Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said at a recent workshop to collect recommendations from experts and business managers to complete the national project on tourism restructuring. The Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW sets a target of welcoming 17-20 million foreign arrivals and 82 million domestic tourists by 2020, whilst earning 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.
To meet the targets, 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.
Nguyen Quoc Ky, Vietravel Director, said the restructuring needs a clear roadmap which identifies priority tasks, adding that it is also necessary to pinpoint the competitive strength and advantages of localities in order to design typical tourism products.
“It is a must to create new and special products designed for different segments of customers, focusing on those from high spending markets like Europe,” he said.
Ky pointed to the imbalance in the number of international tourists to Vietnam, with 55 percent coming from Northeast Asia and 16 percent from Southeast Asia, noting that Chinese holiday-makers account for one third of the total number of foreign vacationers to Vietnam.
Dr. Luong Hoai Nam, from the National Tourism Advisory Board, was of the view that the visa policy should be improved, including expanding the scope of tourism visa exemption and online visa issue while streamlining visa procedures.
In a meeting early this month, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam also required the VNAT to promptly seek recommendations from experts and tourist firms to be able to complete the national project on tourism restructuring specifically. The project must have creative and practical thinking to help the industry develop sustainably.
The restructuring should give top priorities to the development of tourism products and tourism promotion, followed by human resources, infrastructure investment and management of destinations, he said, adding that the project must define the time and specific itineraries as well as the country’s key tourist areas.
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 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.
At the workshop, Tuan also announced that the country expects to meet the target of welcoming 13 million foreign visitors as assigned by the Prime Minister this year.
In the year, the sector also served about 74 million domestic tourists and earned a total of 515 trillion VND (roughly 23 billion USD), contributing 6.96 percent to the country’s GDP.
