As the end of 2012 is coming, the tourism sector is sparing no efforts to implementing and completing its plan and operation strategy for the end of this year and the next 2013. Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on this issue. Giang Tu reports.
Now that the quarter 3 is coming to the end, could you please let us know the key tasks of Vietnam tourism sector from now to the end of the year?
From now until the end of the year, the sector will focus on implementing the issues of the Vietnamese tourism development as to 2020 and Vision 2030 including the definition of the role of state management agencies as well as the tasks of the sector, provinces, and tour operators. Besides, according to the direction of the Tourism State Steering Committee and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, from now to the end of 2012, the tourism sector will focus on four important tasks. The first is to strive to attain 50 percent of the tourist attractions welcoming domestic and international tourists that will have standard toilets and by the end of 2013 all the toilet achieving standards will have been basically completed on the national scale. Secondly, VNAT and localities will resolve fundamentally unsettled problems like cheating, grabbing, chasing customers which have remained for a long time and is now becoming more serious. Thirdly, it is necessary to focus on the systematic summary of the general statistics of international visitors to Vietnam, spending of domestic and international tourists so as to assess the effectiveness and contribution of the tourism sector to socio-economic development. Based on the evaluation result, the relevant agencies will work out the forecast for the next period and propose proper measures. Fourthly and lastly, special attention should be paid to the improvement of quality of training for tourist guides and tourism explanation members. This year, priority will be given to programs and inter-regional training in some key tourist attractions. This is a very important task which will contribute to the change in service quality and enhancement of Vietnam tourism’s competitiveness.
Chasing tourists in an improper way has been so far a big problem. So has any measure been worked out to handle this?
The situation that tourists are being negatively invited for tourism services is rather prevalent in all the localities in Vietnam today even in the best one. The termination of this status depends on the attitude, awareness and direction of the local authorities at different levels. Tourism management authority only provides the overall orientation. Whether the implementation is effective or not greatly depends on the local ones.
Could you please tell us how far the province has prepared for Red River Delta National Tourism Year?
Red River Delta National Tourism Year-Hai Phong will be held in early 2013. The program has been approved by the relevant authority and VNAT is now in cooperation with Hai Phong to make public tourism-year via media. There are 04 concerning issues raised in the tourism year. Firstly, it is essential to find effective ways to fully raise awareness of the community and tourism-operating agencies in creating a truly better tourism environment. Secondly, it is important to make a breakthrough in terms of product development, creating competitive and high-linking products to create more attractive service chains so as to extend the tourists’ accommodation time. In addition, there is a need to strengthen the cooperation among the provinces in the region to organize a sequence of events in the tourism year. And lastly, the promotion and communication activities need to be laid more special focus and effective investment.
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