Communications expert Le Quoc Vinh said that cooperating and linking with ASEAN countries to create regional tourism solutions and services is a way to promote the development of Vietnamese tourism.
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| Communications expert Le Quoc Vinh said that Vietnamese tourism needs to change the way it promotes and take advantage of opportunities for development. (Photo: NVCC) |
Tourism industry faces many challenges
In the first 10 months of 2023, the number of international tourists to Vietnam reached nearly 10 million (more than 9.998 million), an increase of 4.6 times over the same period last year, exceeding the annual plan target; domestic visitors reached 98.7 million; total revenue from tourists reached 582.6 trillion VND.
According to the synthesis of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, tourism is a bright spot in economic recovery. The results of tourism recovery have a spillover effect on many fields, contributing to improving the three growth drivers of the economy: investment, export and consumption.
However, at the Conference on Vietnam's rapid and sustainable tourism development held on November 15, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that the number of international tourists in the first 10 months of 2023 was only 69% compared to the same period in 2019. Domestic tourists, after a period of strong growth in 2022, are showing signs of slowing down. The tourism industry is facing many challenges, obstacles, and problems that have lasted for many years.
Minister Nguyen Van Hung said that currently, traditional key markets are opening up step by step, but have not yet regained the growth rate as before the pandemic. At the same time, the work of connecting and exploiting new markets and potential markets is still slow and facing many difficulties.
In addition, policy communication, updating and promoting information on new regulations of Vietnam tourism are still limited and untimely in international source markets due to the lack of a national tourism promotion office system. Destination management in some localities shows signs of indecision and failure to promptly handle environmental pollution and waste issues, which also affects the image and brand of Vietnam tourism.
In addition, the trend of choosing nearby destinations instead of choosing destinations with long distances of some key markets of Vietnam. Slow connection, slow recovery of international flight frequency as before the Covid-19 pandemic; other factors such as inflation, rising exchange rates, political conflicts, and decreased travel spending of tourists have greatly affected the number of international visitors to Vietnam in recent times.
Sharing his views, Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, assessed that in 10 months, the tourism industry has tried but has not yet achieved the expected results. Although international tourists have increased rapidly, the domestic market has also increased rapidly, but the speed has decreased. In particular, Mr. Vu The Binh said that provinces and cities have focused too much on organizing superficial activities in the country such as festivals, political, cultural and economic events associated with tourism but have not achieved their goals.
Meanwhile, Mr. Binh emphasized that tourists are only interested in traditional cultural identity. If those funds were transferred to international tourism promotion activities, they would be more effective.
In addition, there is another challenge, which is the severe shortage of human resources in the tourism market. Currently, the tourism industry only attracts about 60% of the workforce. Meanwhile, many highly skilled workers have moved to other industries, and many tourism businesses have to use untrained workers to serve customers. In particular, investment in research and development of new tourism products is still too little.
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| Vietnam tourism still faces many difficulties and challenges. (Source: VNA) |
Communication campaigns must be focused.
Providing a solution, communications expert Le Quoc Vinh, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Le Invest Corporation, said that we should no longer promote tourism through the image of the country and its people in a general way. Instead, we must focus on outstanding values in a long-term brand building strategy. At the same time, we must choose unique characteristics for each short-term campaign, targeting each potential customer segment.
“A communication campaign must be focused, with a simple message, promoting a unique and different value, to create a great attraction effect," said Mr. Vinh.
Mr. Le Quoc Vinh also said that, with tourism areas, each place will have its own strengths. Therefore, it is necessary to find out whose problems those strengths solve, where, how, and design specific tourism products to serve that purpose. Of course, those new products must be part of the existing tourism ecosystem, enriching tourism products that are already strengths.
Referring to the issue of tourism competition among countries in the ASEAN region, expert Le Quoc Vinh affirmed that ASEAN is both a partner and a competitor in the tourism industry.
"Cooperating and linking with ASEAN countries to create regional tourism solutions and services is a way to promote Vietnam's tourism development. The number of tourists to Siam Reap (Cambodia) has increased quite a lot, it will be a feasible solution if we can attract a part of tourists to the Mekong Delta during an opportunity to extend the vacation", Mr. Le Quoc Vinh emphasized.
However, on the other hand, Mr. Vinh also stated that Vietnam still has to compete with other countries in the Southeast Asian region. Therefore, we must create more attractive tourism products. At the same time, tourism promotion activities must be more flexible, targeting each small segment, instead of the general, mass approach we have been doing for a long time.
"I see that most ASEAN countries have a systematic, modern and constantly innovative tourism promotion system, especially Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia... They are flexible in making quick decisions and deploying them directly to target markets. Therefore, Vietnam's tourism industry needs to quickly innovate and take advantage of opportunities to make a breakthrough," said expert Le Quoc Vinh.
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