International visitors to Vietnam in the first quarter of 2024 broke the record for the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reporter : The General Statistics Office has just announced that in the first quarter of this year, international visitors to Vietnam reached more than 4.6 million, an increase of 72% over the same period last year, an increase of 3.2% over the same period in 2019. Minister, what factors helped us achieve this victory?
Mr. NGUYEN VAN HUNG, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism
- Mr. NGUYEN VAN HUNG , Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Continuing the recovery momentum of the last months of 2023, in the first 3 months of 2024, the number of international visitors to Vietnam grew positively. The number of visitors in the past 3 months has averaged over 1.5 million and is on an upward trend.
In March 2024 alone, international visitors to Vietnam reached nearly 1.6 million, up 4.4% over the previous month and up 78.6% over the same period last year. Many visitor markets recorded good growth such as Japan, Belgium, France, Singapore... The large Chinese market continued to recover positively, reaching more than 350,000 visitors, up 19% over the previous month.
The above results were achieved thanks to the regular and timely attention and direction of the Party, the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister for the tourism industry. In addition, the close coordination of ministries, branches, localities and the consensus of the business community and people have created favorable conditions for tourism to recover and accelerate.
On the other hand, the results achieved are also the result of the process of research, innovation, product innovation and effectiveness from the approach to meet market needs to the promotion and advertising work with many diverse methods of tourism businesses, destinations and tourism management agencies from central to local levels.
Another important factor is the clear impact of the visa policy applied from August 15, 2023: Increasing the temporary stay period from 15 days to 45 days for countries with unilateral visa exemption and issuing e-visas to all countries with a temporary stay period of up to 90 days.
I believe that the new policy to facilitate easier access for international visitors is an important milestone for Vietnam tourism in 2023. It demonstrates a positive change in awareness of the role, position and contribution of the tourism industry in the economy, contributing to removing barriers that have been in place for the industry for many years, and will have a long-term impact in the process of making tourism truly a spearhead economic sector of the country.
This year, the tourism industry has set a big target of welcoming 18 million international visitors and 110 million domestic visitors. What solutions can tourism take to make a breakthrough, achieve and exceed the set target, Minister ?
- Setting the above goal is to create motivation for the entire tourism industry to strive. The important thing is that we must promote the development of Vietnam tourism in a substantial, comprehensive, fast and sustainable way in the coming time. The tourism industry needs to effectively implement the motto "Close connection - Harmonious coordination - Comprehensive cooperation".
In addition to effectively implementing tasks, we will proactively coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to continue to advise and propose mechanisms, policies and solutions to accelerate tourism development. In particular, we will focus on promoting the guiding and connecting role of central and local management agencies for linkage models, as well as the leading and guiding role of tourism centers to form linkage regions and growth drivers.
In addition, continue to innovate and create more unique tourism products based on the distinct potential and competitive advantages of each locality and region to suit many domestic and international visitors. Along with that, strengthen cooperation to diversify resources and strongly innovate methods and content of promotion and advertising in distant markets with high spending capacity, promote the development of a smart tourism ecosystem associated with digital transformation to strengthen service infrastructure connectivity, support and enhance the experience for tourists...
International tourists visit Da Nang City. Photo: TAN THANH
. The number of international visitors to Vietnam is increasing, but the important issue is to keep them staying longer, spending more and returning to Vietnam more often. What does the Minister think about this?
- I agree with this view. At the National Online Conference on Tourism in 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pointed out that the trend of globalization and deep international integration, especially the 4th industrial revolution, poses many challenges and difficulties, requiring innovative thinking, new approaches, and new ways of doing things to develop the tourism industry.
The strategic orientation of Vietnam tourism is to develop in a professional, quality and effective direction; shifting from breadth to depth on the basis of exploiting and promoting distinct potentials, outstanding opportunities and competitive advantages associated with protecting the environment, natural resources, culture, traditions, and beauty of the country and people of Vietnam.
To make international visitors come back more, stay longer, and spend more, what specific solutions do we need, Minister ?
- First is to create attractive products. We need to take advantage of the unique natural, cultural, culinary, human and musical potential of Vietnam to create attractive tourism products. For cultural tourism, it is necessary to develop cultural tours, allowing tourists to learn about the history, traditions and customs of Vietnam; at the same time, build destinations that can include historical sites, traditional craft villages and unique festivals.
For nature tourism, we need to take advantage of and effectively exploit Vietnam's unique natural landscapes; organize mountain climbing tours, explore forests and mountains and visit nature reserves...
We also need to focus on developing culinary tourism, opening many culinary tours so that tourists can enjoy specialties, learn how to prepare and cook dishes. At the same time, we need to focus on exploiting the strengths of sea and island tourism by organizing diving tours, island tours, water sports activities, etc. Community tourism is also a strength, it is necessary to combine tourism with supporting the local community. We need more homestay tours so that tourists can live in harmony with the unique cultural identity of the indigenous people.
In addition, it is necessary to continue to improve administrative procedures, simplify visa procedures and apply electronic visas to facilitate international tourists. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen promotion and marketing, use media channels, events, and cooperate with international partners to create interest and desire to explore new lands and new experiences in Vietnam.
I believe that "Good wine needs no bush", if we do a good job of product development, have appropriate tourism promotion methods, plus advantages in accessing destinations, competitive prices, then inevitably international visitors will stay longer, spend more and return to Vietnam more often.
Reaching key markets
In order to create a breakthrough development for the tourism industry, in the coming time, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will deploy a number of important and urgent tasks: Continue to research and propose short-term visa exemption for tourists from a number of potential, large-scale markets with high tourism spending; strengthen state management, raise awareness and responsibility of localities and destinations in service quality management, ensure environmental sanitation, create a good impression for tourists...
At the same time, promote the opening of new routes and increase the frequency of existing direct flights between key tourist destinations in Vietnam connecting with target tourist markets. At the same time, promote direct promotional activities in key, traditional international markets and new, potential markets such as Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, North America, Australia, India, the Middle East, etc. Another important solution is to take advantage of the resources of enterprises, airlines, and major distribution partners to expand the ability to reach key and potential markets.
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