Digital transformation is identified as an inevitable trend for the Co To tourism industry as it brings opportunities to improve competitiveness and develop more sustainably in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With the goal of attracting 250,000 tourists to Co To in 2023 (an increase of 16% compared to 2022), total tourism and service revenue reaching about 700 billion VND, in 2023, the People's Committee of Co To district proposed a comprehensive digital transformation plan. In particular, ensuring that 100% of information on routes, streets and tourist attractions, beaches, and relics in the district are digitized and QR coded, 100% of Co To tourism information is digitized and QR coded.

Tourists scan the code at the President Ho Chi Minh Memorial Site on Co To Island.

In 2023, Co To tourism will have a significant change in accessing digital technology. From the beginning of the year, Co To has successfully deployed and applied QR codes at historical sites, routes, and streets serving the district's sightseeing and tourism activities. Visitors can easily learn and look up information about historical sites, routes, locations displayed along with the entire route length, road boundaries, and biographies of characters, dates, meanings, reasons for naming roads, street names, etc. For example, at the special National Monument of President Ho Chi Minh Memorial Site on Co To Island, with just a touch of a hand through smart technology devices here, visitors can learn about Uncle Ho's life, career, history of the relic, and the times Uncle Ho visited Co To in Vietnamese and English.

Not only at destinations, accommodation establishments and hotels also choose digital transformation as an inevitable trend to improve competitiveness and meet customer needs. Co To Green Hotel is one of the first establishments to apply digital transformation to tourism service business activities. Since 2012, this establishment has deployed room booking applications, promoted many tourism products on digital application platforms, thereby attracting a stable number of visitors. Mr. Tran Duc Manh, owner of Co To Green Hotel, said: “Creating new experiences and unique tourism products through digital transformation solutions, optimizing operations at accommodation establishments is extremely important to improve competitiveness and attract tourists. For Co To, digital transformation also needs to be more flexible in form and application methods in tourism activities to facilitate tourists when they need to look up information about Co To tourism via QR codes”.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Linh, Head of the Department of Culture, Information and Tourism of Co To district said: "In the coming time, to promote digital transformation associated with sustainable tourism development, Co To district will deploy electronic payments, promote and advertise online tourism, operate a smart tourism system, build an electronic telecommunications infrastructure platform and accompanying synchronous equipment... In addition, we will promote business owners and tourism establishments to change their awareness of the importance and urgency of digital transformation to proactively apply it to business activities, increasing business efficiency. These activities contribute to realizing the Project "Comprehensive digital transformation of Quang Ninh province by 2025, with a vision to 2030".

Article and photos: HOANG PHUONG