However, Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saigontourist Travel Company, still regrets that Ho Chi Minh City has not yet fully exploited its potential to truly become a regional MICE tourism "hub".
Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saigontourist Travel Company
*Looking back at 2023, will the recovery speed of Vietnam's tourism industry be as you expected?
- Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen : Actually, at the beginning of 2023, I hoped the speed would be faster because the momentum of 2022 was quite good. We have witnessed many tourism booms and if we maintain that speed, by 2024, Vietnam's tourism could recover to the pre-pandemic level of 2019. However, due to the economic impact of the epidemic in 2023, the total demand decreased sharply, greatly affecting tourism demand, so the running pace slowed down, only reaching about 60 - 70% of expectations. But with the general management policies of the economies of countries as well as Vietnam, I think that by the end of the year, tourism will hit bottom and start to recover from 2024.
*But I see that over the past time, Saigontourist Travel has continuously served groups of up to thousands of people. Even during the 2.9 holiday season, although the general "temperature" of tourism was quite quiet, Saigontourist Travel still recorded good growth in the number of visitors. Can you tell us what this result was thanks to?
-That's right, there are times when we serve groups of up to tens of thousands of people from a corporation. From north to south, they sign a common contract and Saigontourist serves all their factories, enterprises, and customers in 63 provinces and cities. Like in the summer of 2022, Ha Long was flooded with Saigontourist guests. That shows that after the pandemic, despite the difficult situation, there are still guests. However, guests will flock to 1-2 units that recover the soonest, retain the largest workforce, and have the financial capacity to meet their needs. Because after the pandemic, when signing contracts with large units, financial potential is very important, most restaurant, hotel, and logistics service partners require a deposit in advance. Saigontourist Travel meets all of those conditions. Not to mention, the two main customers of Saigontourist Travel are cruise ship passengers and MICE (tourism combined with conferences and seminars), especially MICE guests.
*The global economy is still in difficulty, businesses in most fields and industries are struggling to find orders, do these factors affect the number of MICE guests, sir?
-Yes! Of course, all types of customers have decreased due to the general economic situation, but traditional customers traveling alone, with families or in groups of friends will decrease more sharply and at a faster rate. Because individual customers will have to think more when deciding to travel during a period of having to cut spending. But businesses have business strategies. For example, they still have to reward agents, reward employees who achieve KPIs... So even though they cut costs, companies will still have to organize travel programs as part of business promotion activities. Therefore, this is still a potential customer group. If before the pandemic, the ratio of MICE customers - individual customers, families... was 50 - 50, now the number of MICE customers accounts for about 55 - 60% of our total service types.
Tourists experience cyclo tour in Ho Chi Minh City
*HCMC has just been honored as "Asia's Leading MICE Tourism Destination", how do you evaluate the city's ability to exploit MICE tourism in particular and Vietnam in general?
-As I analyzed above, MICE guests are always a potential and highly stable customer stream. They travel in large numbers, spend a lot, and are the group that will decline less and more slowly during the crisis. Typically, in Singapore, MICE guests are not only the driving force of the tourism industry but also the driving force of the entire economy. Before Covid-19, MICE created more than SGD 3.8 billion in added value for this country. The strong return of inbound tourists and large-scale events and conferences in
The last two quarters of 2022 have also helped Singapore become the country with the fastest tourism growth in Southeast Asia. Economic experts in this country point out that the decline in manufacturing and trade activities may be a drag on the Singapore economy in 2023; however, the recovery of international tourism and travel is a factor that partly boosts Singapore's service sector.
In our country, MICE tourism is also being promoted for investment, but honestly, I think that to compete with or surpass Singapore, Korea, China, Bangkok... to become the "hub" of MICE tourism in the region, we still have to make a lot of efforts, especially Ho Chi Minh City. I really regret that until now, Ho Chi Minh City has not been able to make a breakthrough in this type of service.
French tourists in Vietnam
*According to you, why...?
-To become a regional MICE center, first of all, the destination must be the economic and financial center of the region. This means that international meetings and economic and financial events organized for the region will take place here. That need requires infrastructure such as 5-star hotels, international conference rooms that can serve large groups of guests, professional logistics services specializing in serving large events and especially entertainment activities at night. Delegates come during the day to attend conferences and meetings, and at night, they must have a place to eat, play, rest, visit places and spend money. Only then can we truly exploit the full potential and value of this group of guests.
*So how to turn the "title" into reality: Ho Chi Minh City is the leading MICE tourism destination in Asia?
-We have a favorable natural landscape, many cultural and natural heritages that are world wonders. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City is the economic locomotive of the country, developing into a financial center, economic center, logistics center, and service center of the region. Ho Chi Minh City has enough advantages to become an international MICE tourism "hub" but lacks essential infrastructure. That is the system of conference centers, fairs, large and very large-scale event venues. That is the commercial service system, large and diverse shopping areas, serving all needs such as factory outlet areas, duty-free shops on the street or high-class entertainment centers such as casinos...
If we aim to be a "hub" for MICE tourism, we must have a strategy. From building a product system, infrastructure to communication, we must focus on and revolve around those things, meeting the real needs of MICE guests. If we only rely on this tourist attraction, this relic, that heritage, it will only serve tourists in general.
Our resources are far superior to those of other countries in the region. New visa policies also greatly support our competitive advantage. If we focus on promoting investment, Ho Chi Minh City will certainly attract major conferences and events from other countries because we built them later, which means our infrastructure is newer and more beautiful... In fact, the direction of Ho Chi Minh City is to develop into an economic, commercial and service center, so tourism should also follow this direction to support and promote each other's development. We should not spread out too many types, reducing investment concentration and overall being ineffective.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen
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