Tourism promotion in Vietnam has lagged far behind its neighboring countries, former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan admitted, urging concerned agencies to soon map out measures to speed up the activity.
There is an unrealized potential, due to what Khoan called “three shortcomings” in knowledge, professionalism and training of tourism workers.
It also shows in the organizational structure, which is an inhibiting factor, and the lack of representative offices abroad.
Market research, strategy setting and market exploitation are also limited. The tourism sector has not been promoted in big magazines or media channels worldwide.
The budget for tourism promotion is also a matter of special concern. Presently, the budget for the activity is limited, and it is used in a scattered and haphazard fashion, without enhancement from other budgets and resources from enterprises and the community.
Statistics from Hanoi’s Tourism Department showed that expenditure for tourism promotion in 2001-2005 was VND1,250 per tourist, while this figure in Ho Chi Minh City was about VND2,000. [$1= VND15,900]
The expenditure from the State budget for tourism promotion in 2005 was VND15.6 billion ($987,000).
Worse still, there are no legal regulations guiding how tourism promotion should be carried out.
Tourism promotion, basically, is a market activity. It means this activity must be operated under market principles, with targets of turnover and profit. Therefore, promotion activities are very flexible and the rights and benefits of the staff engaging in promotion activities are fixed based on the profits incurred from the promotion activities.
But tourism promotion activities in Vietnam operate under administrative procedures, in which expenditures come from the State budget. This process is not profit-driven, and therefore officials who carry out the activities do not care much about their effectiveness.
Enterprises’ tourism promotion activities are conducted under the regulations of the Enterprises Law, but just inside the scale of their activities and targets. When enterprises join the Government in tourism promotion, there is not any suitable policy for coordination.
With limited budgetary and human resources, co-ordination is very important. However, currently, we haven’t had suitable mechanisms to link all resources, and the national tourism promotion agency has not assumed a leadership like in neighboring countries.
“We have not had appropriate investment and planning, and there is no inter-sector co-ordination in tourism promotion,” the official admitted, it is high time to have a comprehensive look and a proper strategy for tourism promotions.
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 speaking English.
The country welcomed more than 1.8 million foreign tourists in the first half of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 7 per cent. The country has set a target to host as many as 20.9 million tourists. Of them, 3.9 million are predicted to be foreign arrivals, with the remaining 17 million being domestic vacationers, an on-year increase of 14 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.
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