Vietnam has set a target of welcoming around 5.5-6 million international arrivals, earning revenues of US$4-5 billion by 2010, up 62-76 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively over 2005, said Pham Tu, Deputy Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
The figures will help tourism sector remain a spearhead of the national economy in the 2006-2010 period, Tu said.
Vietnam welcomed more than 1.28 million tourists in the first four months of this year, posting a yearly increase of 15.9 per cent, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO), which was released on April 25.
Tu estimated that international visitors to Vietnam would increase by 10-20 percent annually and local tourists would reach 25 million by 2010.
"The target is within our reach," Tu noted, revealing that Vietnam is frequently viewed as a friendly and safe destination and ranked as one of the most attractive destinations in the world over the next decade. Vietnamese tourism has gradually affirmed its role as a leading economic power in the country.
After the 1997 regional economic crisis, despite being affected by pandemics, natural disasters and conflicts in different regions of the world, the Vietnamese tourism industry is entering a strong development period. Over the past 15 years, the number of tourists has increased by 20 per cent each year on average. The number of international tourists to Vietnam has increased 11 fold, from 250,000 in 1990 to 3.4 million in 2005. The tourism industry has earned more than VND30 billion (US$1.9 million), exceeding its plan.
The successes were attributed to the diversification of tourism products, including the arrangement of five international tours and theme tours in combination with local festivals, and the upgrade of two cross-national tours, namely the Vietnam- Laos- Cambodia trip and the trip along the Mekong river through Cambodia.
Notably, Vietnam has exempted visas for citizens from Japan, South Korea and some Nordic countries. The tourism industry has attached importance to organizing many road, river and sea tours, linking places of interest and resorts in localities with one another. Many new tours such as trekking, mountain climbing, sea diving, cave exploration, and travelling trans-Vietnam by bicycle, motorbike and car.
The country has also attached importance to the development and cooperation with international carriers to lure more tourists.
These are important factors for the growth of the tourism industry in the recent period, Tu said, admitting that the local hospitality sector, however, has a lot of things to do to achieve the set targets.
Currently, the professional skills of the workforce in the sector is matters of concern.
The quality of human resources is not good enough to attract tourists to come for a second visit. In fact, tourism staff, both managers and tour guides, have limited knowledge, professional skills, and foreign language ability, as well as underdeveloped cultural and information services. Foreign language skills are the weakest strength of tourism staff.
Investment into tourism remains low. Meanwhile, concerned agencies are not involved in the development of the sector, Tu added.
Vietnam currently has over 400 international and 10,000 domestic travel firms, more than 6,000 hotels, (2,575 of which are ranked), totaling more than 72,458 rooms, as many as 5,194 tour guides, including 2,149 who can speak English.
The country reports around 43,000 employees have been working in the hospitality industry, of whom 20,000 are involved indirectly.
The People, Pioneer
Vietnamese
