Da Nang City has issued a number of tourist promotion programmes in many provinces and cities in Vietnam and other nations, primarily eyeing sea lovers. Many tourist sites, service providers and travel firms have actively taken part in such activities. A Vietnam Business Forum reporter has an interview with Mr Cao Tri Dung, Director of VITOUR Company, on the practical effectiveness of tourist promotion activities launched by provincial authorities and strengths of VITOUR in exploiting tourism potentials.
What do you think about tourist promotion activities conducted by Da Nang City in the past time?
This year, Da Nang has spent much money, effort and manpower advertising and promoting tourism, especially those in relation to Da Nang Firework Festival 2009, and introducing new tourist products like Ba Na cable car and Son Tra eco-tourist site.
Many programmes have also been carried out in key markets like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Thailand, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The targets are sea-lovers, businessmen, MICE travellers and other tourists.
This year, Da Nang has seen a considerable growth in number of businessmen, MICE travellers and sea visitors.
As a Da Nang-based tourist company, how has VITOUR responded to competent State agencies to promote the efficiency of tourist promotion activities?
VITOUR has closely and effectively coordinated with tourist promotion programmes executed not only in Da Nang but in other parts of the nation. Into the bargain, the Company always joins hands with State organs, especially tourism promoters and airlines, to carry its own programmes. This year, the Company has organised many promotion programmes in traditional and potential markets like Vietnam, Europe, Australia, the US, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Could you introduce an effective service used in VITOUR tourist promotion programmes?
To date, VITOUR is the unique unit to carry out the fixed heritage itinerary. We started this programme in November 2004. Initially, we only applied to tourists on Wednesdays in Da Nang but now we apply on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Da Nang and Mondays and Fridays in Hue City. The five-day heritage tour passes all world heritages in the central region, including Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park (Quang Binh province), Hue Monuments and Nha Nhac (elegant music), two world heritages, in Hue City (Thua Thien Hue province), My Son Sanctuary and Hoi An Ancient Town, also word heritages, in Quang Ninh province. VITOUR develops other four-day, three-day, two-day and one-day programmes to create a wide range of products for travellers.
The outstanding features of VTOUR’s fixed heritage itinerary with fixed programme, fixed date, fixed hours and fixed quality regardless of the number of travellers. This helps travellers arrange their travel at their wish. To create this product, we had to spend much and accepted risks in case of insufficient traveller attendance. The exceptional feature is the low price applied to 10-12-person groups. At present, this impressive programme has attracted more than tourist service companies. Travellers can also register the company’s services in agents in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
As an active participant in the Impressive Vietnam Campaign launched by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), could you tell your results after three months of implementing this campaign?
The Company collaborated with Vietnam Airlines to reduce charges for inbound and outbound tours, service companies and hotels, to cut service fairs and to cut service charge for visitors. The company also receives tax exemption from the Government in 2009. Therefore, all programmes introduced by VITOUR to domestic and international visitors are offering discounts and higher service quality. VITOUR serves both international and Vietnamese visitors. After three months, the number of domestic visitors of VITOUR increased 20-30 per cent and markets expanded by 10 per cent.
Reported by Thu Huyen
Vietnamese
