Ten years ago, the only way for tourists to admire An Thoi Bay, one of the largest coral reefs in Vietnam located south of Phu Quoc, was by a forty-five-minute wooden boat ride. Today, they can see the entire sea with the most pristine sandbanks of the country from the cable car. Also today, from the Sun Wheel and the Queen cable car (Quang Ninh), millions of people can admire the heritage bay from above, a scene that only a decade ago they could only see on TV... PSG - Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, has repeatedly affirmed that Sun Group has brought a different and classy image to Vietnam tourism.
From the aspiration of "Bringing Vietnam to the world - bringing the world to Vietnam" in the early days of returning to Vietnam 15 years ago, the people of Sun Group are still working hard on the journey of "beautifying the lands". But in a conversation with Thanh Nien, Mr. Dang Minh Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sun Group, did not mention the achievements, awards or records that Sun Group has achieved. For the people of Sun Group, their greatest aspiration is to bring the image of the country, people, culture, and cuisine of Vietnam to the world and awaken potential lands across the country, so that the local people can have a more prosperous life...
Cruise ship docks at Ha Long international passenger port
I think, just like Sun Group 15 years ago, many tourism businesses have started, because of the belief we will have today.
Today’s picture is not inevitable. It is the result of the tireless efforts of every Vietnamese citizen, of the central and local governments, as well as the efforts of each enterprise.
According to the report of the World Economic Forum - WEF, in the period 2011 - 2019, Vietnam's ranking on the global tourism competitiveness ranking increased dramatically. If in 2011, Vietnam's tourism was only ranked at a modest position of 80/139, then by 2019, Vietnam had risen 17 places, to position 63/140.
Sunset Town
The 2022 WEF report continues to assess that Vietnam's tourism has the highest increase in score among 117 economies in the world, up 8 places in the 2021 Travel and Tourism Development Index.
But even before this boom, since the early years of the century, we believed that this was the position that Vietnam deserved. We have so much potential, not only in terms of natural resources, cultural resources, but also human resources. Compared to many countries in the region, Vietnam has just shifted to a market economy. But the Vietnamese have built tourism products that have been honored by the world, through awards such as the World Travel Awards, World Luxury Hotel Awards and many honors by international media.
The greatest asset we have gained after nearly two decades of working hard in tourism is the awareness and thinking about the important role of tourism in the country's economy.
In terms of policy, the Party and Government have continuously issued resolutions identifying tourism as a key economic sector; most localities in the country have also developed their own tourism development projects, all of which set out a vision for tourism to become an important part of economic development.
But the macro orientations cannot be completed without the support of the people. 15 years ago, when we started building the Ba Na Hills project, we received a lot of skepticism, even difficulties in the recruitment stage. Convincing the staff to go to the cold, foggy mountain top, live there and build the cable car was a feat. But now, I believe that any staff of Sun Group, from the project construction workers to those who directly serve tourists, will tell you that they are doing that job with pride. All of them understand that they are contributing to beautifying, and thereby enriching, the lands through tourism.
Van Don - Mong Cai Expressway
In a recent internal sharing session of Sun Group, we received some very touching posts about the attitude of tourism workers towards customers. There were hotel staff who ran to the airport at 3am, just to look for lost luggage with foreign guests - even though it was not their job.
So do the locals. You’ll catch a glimpse of the international market at a souvenir shop or small eatery in the market. There, behind the counter, you’ll find sheets of paper where the elderly shopkeeper has written simple foreign language sentences, not just in English, but also in Korean and Japanese.
In 2004, when we organized a trip to bring friends and partners from Ukraine to Vietnam, everyone prepared a lot of canned food because they thought that in a country that had just finished a war, there would be nothing to eat. We had to convince them to leave their food at home and just bring money, because there was no shortage of delicious and strange things here. In the end, they came and were surprised by the richness of Vietnamese cuisine.
Vietnam tourism in the first decade of the century was not developed. But along with the difficulties, there were also opportunities. We had too many resources that had not been properly exploited. We had many values that the world did not know about. We traveled to Europe, and experienced lands that were “nothing” compared to our homeland in terms of natural resources, yet they did very well and earned a lot of money.
That is also the reason why the motto of Sun Group's newly established period is "Bringing Vietnam to the world - Bringing the world to Vietnam".
And right from that time, many visionary leaders determined that investing in tourism was vital. We were called back to the country, introduced to potential lands and created many investment conditions because of that vision.
Our country suffered many disadvantages due to the war. Most of the major tourism industries in Asia started in the 60s and 70s, meaning we are nearly thirty years behind them, especially in infrastructure investment. The Koreans have organized the Olympics and earned billions of dollars from tourism since the 80s. At times, Bangkok had more 5-star hotels than Rome or Washington DC. There are many aspects that need more efforts to build: from tourism infrastructure, high-class tourism products to human capital. Sun Group is making efforts in these areas.
But one issue that can be solved immediately, and has important implications for Vietnam's tourism competitiveness compared to other countries, is visa policy.
Recently, the National Assembly has officially approved the extension of the e-visa to 90 days and the unilateral visa-free temporary stay to 45 days. This will contribute to creating favorable conditions for tourism to increase the attraction of international visitors, stay longer and return to Vietnam more times. However, compared to the extremely open visa policies of Thailand - visa exemption for 64 countries and territories, Singapore and Malaysia visa exemption for 162 countries and territories... Vietnam is still "inferior", it is difficult to compete or think about narrowing the gap in the growth of international visitors.
Tourism industries like South Korea and Thailand have been thriving for a long time, seemingly lacking nothing, but in 2016 and 2017, their national tourism boards also put in a lot of effort, cooperating with Michelin to try to bring the Michelin Guide to Seoul and Bangkok. This shows how highly Michelin is regarded in efforts to build a tourism brand for a country.
Culinary tourism is a very important part of tourism. It can contribute up to 20% to the total revenue of the entire Thai tourism industry. That is, the money from selling food to tourists alone is equivalent to the entire tourism revenue of our country - approximately 20 billion USD per year. The reason I use Thailand as an example is so that everyone can realize that Vietnam is not inferior to its neighbor in traditional cuisine and the potential for developing modern cuisine, if not more promising.
Sun Group has been very focused on this area since the beginning. Since the last decade, we have invited world-famous chefs to Vietnam and built restaurants together. Chef Pierre Gagnaire recently worked with director Tran Anh Hung to make the film La passion de Dodin Bouffant, which was a huge success at Cannes. Many people may have first heard of him when standing with Tran Anh Hung and Juliette Binoche on the red carpet. But guests of InterContinental Danang have long been familiar with his name: the 12-Michelin-starred chef who, together with Sun Group, built the 1888 Maison restaurant in Son Tra. Many Vietnamese have eaten dishes designed by him.
The Michelin stars and the restaurants that we have received in the Michelin Guide are just the result of more than a decade of investment in fine dining. After Pierre Gagnaire came Junichi Yoshida, the master of the Japanese art of teppanyaki - who built us our first Michelin-starred restaurant, Hibana by Koki.
Besides, there are culinary artists Anh Tuyet, chefs Michel Roux or Ophélie Bares, characters whose titles and contributions to cuisine cannot be listed. In fact, Sun Group's customers have been familiar with Michelin standards for a long time.
Sun World Fansipan Legend
It is certainly a way forward, as Thailand has done. They regularly rank high in rankings of nation brands related to tourism destinations. Many small countries with rich culture or natural resources, such as Bhutan or the Maldives, are extremely consistent in positioning their nation brand as a tourism destination. Vietnam is considered a country with rich natural and cultural resources, favorable for developing diverse types of tourism.
However, it seems that this is also the reason why Vietnam is having difficulty in selecting products and services with its own mark to build a national brand. There have been many different opinions on this issue, typically the proposal to turn Vietnam into the "kitchen of the world" or turn Vietnam into a "heritage destination"..., but there is no consensus. I think that one of the reasons for this is that we have not had proper research, evaluation and investment to be able to select a product/service with a national brand.
For example, if we want Vietnam to become the kitchen of the world, we must invest in developing and promoting Vietnamese cuisine so that it becomes a real highlight, making tourists think of Vietnam's unique cuisine that cannot be missed. With the current way of doing cuisine, we still have a long way to go.
Thanhnien.vn
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