Green and sustainable tourism development strategy

The Prime Minister assigned the tourism industry the task of welcoming and serving 18 million international tourists and 110 million domestic tourists, with total tourism revenue estimated at VND850,000 billion in 2024.

Strong innovation in promotion and advertising

At the conference to review the work in 2023 and deploy key tasks in 2024 organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) on January 3, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that in 2024, the important task is to strongly innovate the methods and content of tourism promotion and advertising. At the same time, develop a smart tourism ecosystem associated with digital transformation to strengthen service infrastructure connectivity, support and enhance the experience for tourists, and increase the application of green and clean technology in tourism.

Khách quốc tế tham quan Văn Miếu - Quốc Tử Giám Hà Nội — International visitors visit Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy in Hanoi

The Head of Government also emphasized the development of tourism in the direction of "Unique products - Professional services - Convenient and simple procedures - Competitive prices - Clean and beautiful environment - Safe, civilized and friendly destinations". The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was assigned to proactively coordinate with relevant ministries, branches and localities to propose specific mechanisms, policies and solutions to support and remove difficulties such as taxes, land, autonomy, coordination mechanisms... Promote linkages with the motto "one route, many destinations", build a national heritage road, an international heritage road...

To achieve the goals requested by the Prime Minister, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that in 2024, the industry will synchronously deploy many important solutions. Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation the Vietnam Tourism Development System Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045, as well as the Prime Minister's directive on comprehensive, rapid and sustainable tourism development. The Ministry will also direct the implementation of measures to ensure the safety of tourists; strengthen management and control of the quality of tourism services; proactively develop plans and prepare conditions to serve tourists, first of all during the Lunar New Year.

Another important content is that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will develop evaluation criteria and deploy a green growth ranking system for tourist destinations and tourism businesses in Vietnam. At the same time, it will develop a project to establish tourism promotion offices in some key markets and a plan to implement themed tourism marketing campaigns.

Shift to green tourism

Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, emphasized that Vietnam needs to shift tourism to green tourism for sustainable development, in which the core is to protect the environment and shift tourism services to green tourism services, paying attention to the issue of waste, especially plastic waste.

Vietnam's tourism development strategy to 2030 also identifies Vietnam's tourism development with a sustainable and inclusive orientation on the basis of green growth, maximizing tourism's contribution to sustainable development goals.

Mr. Vu Van Tuyen, Vice President of Vietnam Community Tourism Association, said that developing green tourism, green growth, aiming at the goal of sustainable tourism development is a trend, both an opportunity and a challenge for Vietnam tourism.

According to Mr. Tuyen, it is especially necessary to create products that meet the needs of tourists to experience and interact with the local community. Green tourism is not only about visiting tourist destinations that are close to nature, encouraging tourists to protect the environment, and limiting the impact on the original beauty of nature, but also about the values and identity of the community that need to be preserved, enhanced and developed. This is an effective measure to solve poverty, create local jobs and diversify the economy.

Facilitate international visitors to extend their stay

To recover and strongly develop the tourism industry, the leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Binh Thuan province proposed many solutions, including granting longer-term visas (from 1-3 months) to international tourists or creating conditions for international visitors to extend their stay in Vietnam. Expanding the list of countries exempted from visas, continuing to pay attention to investing in developing tourism, medical and sanitation infrastructure... Based on the characteristics of regional tourism products, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism need to play a coordinating role in building common regional promotional products, with distinct, unique characteristics or specialized promotional products for common use when promoting other countries.