Hanoi Finding Ways to Tap Tourism Potential

The capital city has launched 15 programmes and projects for tourism development and promotion. Some of the contents are controversial.

 

First, to have practical contents and programmes, it calls for a comprehensive assessment of tourism potential to know how many historic sites, scenic places, museums and hotels can serve international visitors. It even needs to know in detail how many temples, pagodas and monuments have professional guides; how many destinations operate seasonally, and how many places are for free sightseeing. It also needs to make a list of monuments and museums frequently visited by international visitors. It also needs to know how many tours are attractive or unattractive to tourists, although these figures are relative. Then, it must seek answers to the question of why Hanoi has no tour operators organising city-centre tours, and what the quality of infrastructure serving international visitors is. Put another way, to have practical programmes and contents, Hanoi needs to assess its tourism organising capacity, its tourism management and support capacity, and its administration on travel and accommodation operations. But, if it lacks professional tourism organisers and managers, it is very difficult to translate plans into reality.

 

The draft plan worked out by the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism did not mention the “Sightseeing Hoan Kiem Lake - Ancient Quarters on trams” tour plan. Do Xuan Thuy, owner of a tram car company, said the company has effectively carried out a pilot programme to this effect since June 2010. In 2013, it served nearly 600,000 customers. Many groups asked for visiting West Lake, Literature Temple, One Pillar Pagoda and Thang Long Royal Citadel but the company could not serve because of limited resources. It is a mistake to drop a safe scientific tourism activity like this. In fact, after the successful pilot period, the official operation was not allowed.

 

Similarly, Hanoi also did not have a detailed assessment of inter-city potentials with the presence of the West Lake. Very few capitals in the world have such a big lake surrounded by dozens of time-honoured historical and culture relics as well as ancient trees. The infrastructure system around the West Lake is fundamentally very convenient for travelling by tramcar. But, tramcar owners around the West Lake and the Hoan Kiem Lake cannot operate outside the six-month pilot areas. Why weren’t these “green lungs” imbued with local identity added to tourism development programme?

 

According to surveys and interviews, officials at District Committees of Culture, Sports and Tourism only know to manage rituals and relic sites and they are almost unaware of tourism management and organisation, which requires specific professions like management of travel firms, accommodation establishments and restaurants, or coordinated management of accommodation establishments, food safety and unfriendly marketing activities. Meanwhile, training programmes for officials whoa re expert in tourism management and organisation are not mentioned.

 

Tourism is a general service business sector. Once touring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, we will understand how huge potentials we have. So, why are we unable to attract 10 million international visitors a year while international arrivals to their capital cities are 7 times as many?

 

To develop tourism, Hanoi needs to make breakthroughs in tourism promotion, with specific advertising programmes. The city needs to mobilise resources from businesses and the private sector and employ officials capable of managing and organising tourism activities to catch up with the desirable results in capital cities in regional countries.