Aim high or low?

Data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism shows that in the first 10 months of 2023, the tourism industry recorded about 10 million international visitors and 99 million domestic tourists. This number of international visitors only reached 69% compared to the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. In order to create a breakthrough in tourism development and attract international visitors, it is necessary to apply innovative strategies along with enhancing the role of the tourism industry so that it truly becomes a spearhead economic sector in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 08 of the Politburo.

Comprehensive and innovative tourism development strategy

Regarding the issue of tourists staying abroad, from the perspective of state management, the Law on Tourism and its guiding documents have provisions on the prohibition and handling of violations by travel agencies according to Article 9 of the 2017 Law on Tourism or Article 07 of Decree 45/2019/ND-CP on the issue of tourists staying abroad. However, these provisions need to be reviewed and further adjusted to avoid causing difficulties for businesses. Because the subjects that the above regulations are aimed at are travel agencies with customers staying abroad, the fact that customers stay abroad is only a case of force majeure beyond the reasonable control of the business. It is necessary to review and investigate the direct causes leading to the incident, instead of focusing only on handling the travel agency.

Đón khách quốc tế: Đặt mục tiêu cao hay thấp? - Ảnh 1.

Setting high goals can bring breakthrough opportunities for tourism. In the photo: Tourists enjoy themselves at a destination in Ben Tre. Photo: THAI PHUONG

Regarding the Land Law and financial policy, the Land Law (amended) needs to be adjusted, paying attention to tourism issues, especially regulations on the development of tourist areas, avoiding the omission of identifying land for tourism development. The Land Law must meet the goal of Resolution 08 of the Politburo that by 2030, tourism will become a key economic sector, contributing 14%-15% to the country's GDP.

Regarding Decree 132/2020/ND-CP, one of the bottlenecks that is causing many businesses to face difficulties is the regulation to control the ceiling of total interest expense (EBITDA) at 30% according to Point a, Clause 3, Article 16. This makes it difficult for many businesses to access capital, while banks have converted activities with very good conditions in promoting tourism businesses to access capital.

Currently, tourism businesses borrow capital from credit institutions mainly through short-term loans, usually with a term of about 6 months. For long-term loans, in addition to high interest rates, collateral is required, but most of the assets of tourism businesses are intangible products with low value; banks are afraid of risks... so it is almost impossible to access loans.

Therefore, it is necessary to focus on developing tourism in a sustainable direction, while updating the tourism development strategy. It is necessary to strengthen the National Steering Committee for Tourism Development, first of all, setting a target of welcoming international visitors for 2024, not just a matter of setting a target of 12-15 million visitors, but should strive for a higher number of 18-20 million visitors. Setting high targets can bring about breakthrough opportunities, along with building strong policies and incentives to promote the development of the tourism industry.

The boost from "event sets"

Regarding tourism promotion, it is possible to immediately implement a trade counselor mechanism as the Ministry of Industry and Trade is implementing. At the same time, it is proposed that the Prime Minister consider the Ministry of Foreign Affairs applying a counselor mechanism in the field of tourism trade.

Regarding the night-time economy, many localities still face difficulties in implementing the night-time economy, mostly focusing on activities such as walking streets and cuisine, but have not fully exploited the potential of culture, history, characteristics of the country and especially the customs of the community. This limits the maximum exploitation of tourism potential.

The night-time economy can be effectively combined with cultural and sports events. The recent Black Pink event is a testament to the fact that culture can create economic value as great as sports. The tourism industry needs to propose and organize international events to attract tourists. Along with international and national events, the management agency can review and adjust the construction and management of current domestic events.

Although ministries, departments and sectors often organize large national events, they have not yet implemented a system of events. It is necessary to establish a set of national events that are announced annually, creating opportunities for tourism businesses to build and integrate their products. Tourism products play an important role in the overall economy and without this set of national events, businesses will have difficulty in developing and providing new products, leading to a lack of innovation in the industry.

For example, Vietravel has pioneered in coordinating with the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to bring the F1H2O International Powerboat Championship to Binh Dinh in March 2024. With a multinational scale, this event attracts about 10,000 - 15,000 international tourists; about 3,500 athletes from various countries to compete... At the same time, when implementing international events, it is necessary to have a strict plan to build and manage the event, avoiding unprofessional methods, lack of focus and not taking full advantage of the potential and maximum efficiency of the event.

Travel with Green, Clean, Bright, Living

To effectively manage destinations, it is proposed to set up targets according to the GoGreen criteria with 4 main factors: Green - Clean - Bright - Living with the goal of creating a green, clean, bright, and interesting tourism environment not only for tourists but also for the local community.

Tourism, as a comprehensive economic sector, needs the attention and active participation of relevant ministries and departments. We can refer to the story shared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development about agricultural tourism to see that tourism and agriculture can create a positive connection, when tourism is strictly managed, it can effectively solve the problem of agricultural product output.