According to the rules of the international tourist market, from September this year to April next year will be the peak tourist season. To prepare for this year's peak season, tourism businesses are making efforts to promote their products to partners.
Looking for partners in the long-distance travel market
Mr. Duong Xuan Trang, Director of Mai Viet Tourism Company, said that in mid-September, the Company will join a number of tourism units specializing in welcoming international guests to participate in the IPTM Tourism Fair, taking place from September 17-19.
"Initially, the State tourism management agency announced that it would organize the group, but last July it announced that it would not participate, so businesses had to mobilize on their own, because this is an important source of customers from partners," Mr. Duong Xuan Trang shared.
According to tourism businesses welcoming international visitors from distant markets, the absence of the Vietnamese tourism industry's general booth at the world's two leading tourism fairs such as WTM London, UK (November 2023) and ITB Berlin, Germany (March 2024) is really a difficulty for them.
The national tourism pavilion will support private companies and businesses to reduce procedural and financial difficulties to be present at large-scale fairs. According to the reflection of Vietnamese tourism businesses participating in the ITB Berlin 2024 fair, at ITB Berlin 2024, most of the developed tourism countries in Southeast Asia have national pavilions such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, etc.
Some countries do not have national pavilions such as Vietnam, Myanmar, East Timor... Not participating in international fairs of the Vietnamese tourism industry is making it difficult for businesses to approach large customer sending units from international tourist markets far from key points.
This year, there was no common booth, so Vietnamese businesses had to contact and connect with each other to organize their participation. Many units could not find partners to participate, had to pay high costs or could not come to ITB Berlin. In addition, because of the lack of a common concept (theme) between booths, it was difficult to organize large-scale joint programs to attract visitors from other areas of the fair.
Mr. Hoang Nhan Chinh, Head of the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) Secretariat, said that the absence from WTM and ITB is also a waste. "In the context that the Government has created favorable visa policies, but the tourism industry is weakly promoting in the visa-free markets such as the UK, Germany... it is really regrettable," Mr. Hoang Nhan Chinh emphasized.
Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, commented that Vietnamese tourism has missed a "golden opportunity" by being absent from major tourism fairs. The continuous absence from the world's two top fairs has left us out of breath and may have "ceded" major partners to other countries. As every year, the official booths of Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia still do a very good job of attracting visitors. "For tourism businesses, participating in fairs is very important because it is directly related to products. Therefore, if the State management agency does not organize, businesses still have to mobilize themselves but the efficiency will not be high because there are no specific destination images," said Mr. Vu The Binh.
Previously, answering questions before the National Assembly, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung acknowledged that the operation and management of the Tourism Development Fund was not stable, "having money but not being able to spend it". This had a significant impact on participation in tourism promotion programs and major international fairs.
The international tourist market still has a lot of room.
Mr. Lai Van Quan, Director of Focus Tourism Company Limited (Focustours), said: In 2023, airfares were a big problem for businesses when designing tourism products, due to high prices. However, from around mid-2024, airfares on some international routes have cooled down, creating favorable conditions for attracting customers. Some groups of tourists choose to fly at night, with prices halved compared to before. This is an opportunity to attract international customers.
The biggest problem now is creating attractive tourism products and promoting them. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, with the number of international visitors to Vietnam in July 2024 reaching 1.15 million, the total number of international visitors in the first 7 months of 2024 reached nearly 10 million, an increase of 51% over the same period in 2023 and an increase of 1.9% over the same period in 2019 - the time before the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, analysis of each customer market shows that the nearest market (Asia) increased the most, with an increase of 57%. The main driving force came from large markets in Northeast Asia such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan (China). Southeast Asian markets also achieved good growth.
From now until the end of 2024, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will continue to implement programs to introduce Vietnamese tourism abroad such as China, India, Australia and New Zealand, and organize a program to promote Vietnamese tourism and cinema in the US.
According to Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh, the tourism industry's target in 2024 is to welcome 17-18 million international visitors. However, this number is lower than the potential of Vietnam's tourism. In fact, businesses in the association set a target of over 20 million visitors this year. The basis for the 20 million visitor figure is the visa policy, which has undergone many innovations, although not as extensive as some countries in the region.
“Currently, Vietnam is exempting bilateral visas for 15 countries with a stay of 45 days, increasing the duration of e-visas to 90 days and is researching to expand the list of unilateral visa exemptions, piloting the issuance of long-term visas, multiple entries... To do this, in addition to widespread communication in the press, the tourism industry needs to soon have a promotion strategy through major international tourism fairs, because this is an important B2B sales channel,” Mr. Vu The Binh suggested.
Source
Comment (0)