This is the commitment by Dr Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) on his recent official working visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh. He said that the Vietnamese tourism sector has made strong growth in the past time and that UNWTO will broaden cooperation to assist Vietnam to develop tourism.
On this occasion, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Dr Taleb Rifai on the cooperation between Vietnam and UNWTO in the time to come. Huyen-Ha report.
This is your third official visit to Vietnam. How do you feel about economic development of Vietnam?
This is my third visit to Vietnam, twice to Hanoi and once to Da Nang. On each visit, I was very impressed by rapid changes, progress and uniqueness of Vietnam. Its achievements in economy in general and in tourism in particular were very positive. I would like to congratulate you on that.
My visit to Vietnam aims to strengthen tourism cooperation between Vietnam and the UNWTO, and discuss some technical assistance projects for Vietnam's tourism in the coming time. Besides, I would like to invite Vietnam to join a programme called the voice of global leaders to tourism. It also gives me the opportunity to visit many other famous landscapes in Vietnam like Thang Long Royal Palace, Bai Dinh Pagoda, Ha Long Bay and others to know more about the country and the people of Vietnam.
What are your opinions about the role of tourism in Vietnam’s economic development?
Perhaps, tourism is now a fastest-growing industry in the world, creates millions of jobs, and serves as a driving force of economic growth and development. There is one tourism worker out of every 12 workers and there is one international traveller out of every seven citizens. Global tourists are expected to top 1 billion in 2012. This figure shows that tourism is now not a luxury choice but an essential part of life.
Vietnam is blessed with great potentials and advantages to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector of the country. In the past few years, though the economy slowed down, the tourism industry had very strong growth. According to statistics, in 2011, Vietnam welcomed more than 6 million international tourists, up nearly 20 percent over 2010, and served 30 million domestic tourists, up 7.5 percent against 2010. As far as I am concerned, in the first quarter of 2012, Vietnam saw more than 1.8 million international visitors, up 24.5 percent over the same period in 2011, and 9.6 million domestic tourists. With those successes, the Vietnamese tourism industry generated about 5 percent of GDP, more than 500,000 direct jobs and over 1 million indirect jobs. UNWTO is very proud to have a member like Vietnam which has attained a plenty of great achievements in tourism development. I am also very impressed with the new message of Vietnamese tourism.
But, Vietnam’s tourism development is incommensurate to its potential. According to experts, Vietnam necessarily carries out right strategies to bring tourism to new heights. What do you think about this?
The Vietnamese tourism industry is still confronting restrictions in macro tourism development policies, service quality, human resource quality, and natural environment. Vietnam should continue to focus on traditional markets it has made success like Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and other emerging markets such as Russia, China, India and the Middle East. In addition, the country should participate in the voice of global leaders for tourism campaign in order to raise awareness and support of world leaders for its tourism development.
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The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.
In recent years, UNWTO is one of Vietnam’s important tourism partners. The agency has helped Vietnam implement such projects as MICE tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City in 2004, cottage industry village tourism development in Phu Vinh rattan and bamboo weaving village in 2008, and tourism product development in Ha Giang and Yen Bai in 2010.
In legislation, UNWTO advised Vietnam to build the Tourism Law in 2005 and organised the implementation of the Law on Tourism’s contents in 2007 and 2008.
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The most important point in tourism development is it must go hand in hand with sustainable environmental protection, minimised energy consumption, and use of renewable energy in resorts, hotels and motels.
To do this, how will UNWTO support Vietnam to accelerate tourism development?
Tourism is a general economic sector. The development of tourism is related to many other sectors such as agriculture, food, construction and others. So, UNWTO’s plans with Vietnam will always have to pay attention to these issues.
In the coming time, UNWTO will cooperate and support Vietnam’s tourism with three key programmes, including amendments to the current Law on Tourism; tourism development planning for rural, mountainous regions and beyond; and promotion of Vietnamese tourism to the world by sending experts to research, and support Vietnam's tourism product development, train key industry personnel, supply database, support the research and application of tourism satellite accounts. At present, UNWTO also has specific plans to promote and advertise tourism in general and Vietnamese tourism in particular to take advantage of tourism.
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