Tourism industry alone is difficult to handle

Some people take advantage of street vending and shoe shining to harass and rip off tourists, especially international tourists...

Regarding the situation of street vendors and shoe shiners charging high prices, deliberately luring, inviting, and bothering foreign tourists, Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, proposed solutions to handle this problem.

Reporter: Tourists often complain about street vendors soliciting and even enticing them to buy goods at many tourist destinations in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City. Has the Department of Tourism received any feedback, sir?

- Mr. LE TRUONG HIEN HOA: The issues raised by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper have been reported to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism and are regularly directed by professional forces to consider them as key priority tasks that need to be focused on solving.

Người bán hàng rong đeo bám, mời chào khách quốc tế ở trung tâm TP HCM Ảnh: LAM GIANG — Street vendors cling to and solicit international visitors in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: LAM GIANG

The Department regularly directs specialized departments to strengthen specialized inspections at tourist routes and destinations, coordinate with relevant functional units to grasp the situation and promptly handle any complaints from tourists. At the same time, this year, the Department of Tourism has proactively coordinated with the City Police; the Department of Culture and Information of Districts 1 and 3; the Police of Districts 1 and 3; and the City Youth Volunteer Force to establish a working group to carry out a special topic on handling the situation of price gouging and street vending that causes disorder.

Specialized agencies have investigated, reviewed, and compiled a list of subjects operating in complex industries such as illegal car driving, cyclo driving, coconut trading, and other street vendors in the area. At the same time, they have compiled a record of reminders and required these people to make a commitment not to solicit customers as well as comply with regulations on security, order, and urban order.

These forces also regularly patrol to detect street vendors in key areas, public areas, and tourist attractions in the area.

In addition, the Department of Tourism regularly holds quarterly meetings to evaluate the results of implementation and orient and deploy tasks that need to be performed in the coming time. Up to now, these subjects have tended to decrease in number and narrow the scope of activities.

Why have cases of overcharging, making things difficult, and harassing tourists been going on for a long time, for many years, but the tourism industry has not been able to handle them thoroughly?

- Thoroughly resolving cases of overcharging, making things difficult, and harassing tourists has posed many problems for state management agencies in recent times. However, tourism is a comprehensive economic - service sector related to many industries. Therefore, the tourism industry alone cannot completely resolve this situation.

Through investigation and screening, the majority of coconut sellers, street vendors, shoe shiners... are immigrants, temporarily residing in many suburban districts. In addition to those who do legitimate business to make a living, there are a few groups that take advantage of street vending and shoe shine to harass, appropriate, and damage the property of tourists, especially international tourists. These subjects operate in small groups, during the off-hours of the authorities and within a certain area.

However, the authorities dealing with these subjects face many difficulties in the post-processing between state management agencies and local authorities. Because the law does not have specific regulations, the sanctions for acts of trading, soliciting, and causing trouble for tourists are still light. Most of them are only subject to administrative sanctions, which are not enough of a deterrent, making it easy to re-offend and often more reckless in subsequent violations.

What are the biggest difficulties and problems, sir?

- The number of subjects taking advantage of street vending and shoe shining to harass, appropriate, and violate the property of tourists... do not have a stable place of residence. The most difficult thing to handle is the lack of evidence, the violated property is small, tourists are afraid to report; the main handling is administrative fines, low fines, confiscation of means and trading items and then sending them home, so it is not enough of a deterrent. Many subjects re-offend and find ways to deal with the authorities such as changing the area of operation, disguising the sale, hiding from the authorities... Some people who are handled do not pay the fine, and there is no storage for the confiscated items...

Meanwhile, ensuring security and safety for tourists is a risky field of activity, often facing social evils, causing difficulties for the task force.

In addition, the personnel of the Tourist Order Team (under the City Youth Union) only have the task of prevention, do not have the function or authority to handle, so they need the coordination and support of the authorities. Therefore, the effectiveness of ensuring tourist order and security in the area is not high, lacking stability. The situation of snatching, street vending, begging, and harassing tourists has not been fundamentally resolved.

So, in your opinion, what is the solution to eliminate street vendors who annoy customers, especially shoe shiners who charge high prices and deliberately entice customers; and coconut water vendors who have been inviting customers and annoying them for so many years?

- To solve this situation requires the drastic and regular participation of many functional sectors. At the conference to review 3 years of implementing the Regulations on coordination to ensure security and order, improve the quality of tourism management in Ho Chi Minh City, the City Police and the Department of Tourism identified ensuring security and order in tourism, in which thoroughly handling the situation of street vending and price gouging is one of the key tasks. In the coming time, the two units will strengthen coordination to deploy specific solutions to solve the above problem.

(To be continued)

(*) See Lao Dong Newspaper from issue dated November 25

Proposal to establish a force to support tourists

The Department of Tourism said it will apply information technology to support tourists; receive information to support tourists, and provide warning information to support tourists. At the same time, it will continue to advise and propose the establishment of a specialized force to support tourists.