National Tourism Year 2015: Success and Regret

 

National Tourism Year 2015 had 62 events, including many impressive and attractive events like Thanh Hoa Festival 2015 and Lam Kinh Festival. By tapping cultural and historical values and natural beauties, Thanh Hoa has made a “miracle” of tourism development in the past year.

 

Some new products have been launched and produced efficiently, such as cultural community eco-tourism in Pu Luong Natural Reserve, Nang Cat Tourism Village (Tri Nang commune, Lang Chanh district), and Ma River Tourism. Particularly, tourism service has also been improved.

 

Although Vietnam’s tourism faced tough difficulties in 2015 due to economic downturn, tourist arrivals to provinces and cities with world heritages increased sharply. According to statistics from 16 provinces and cities with world heritages, tourist arrivals exceeded 96 million in 2015, up 11 per cent over 2014 and tourism revenue reached nearly VND200,000 billion, up 13 per cent year on year. Particularly, Thanh Hoa province welcomed 5.5 million tourists, up 21.9 per cent year on year and fulfilling 100.5 per cent of the full-year plan. Its tourism revenue totalled nearly VND5,200 billion, up 40.4 per cent against 2014. These growth rates were the highest and the most impressive of Thanh Hoa tourism so far.

 

 

Needless to say, Thanh Hoa tourism developed in both quality and quantity. However, the National Tourism Year 2015 still left many regrets for travel agents. Nguyen Tien Dat, Deputy Director of TransViet Company, said, “I think that the National Tourism Year 2015 - Thanh Hoa was yet to be fully tapped. Most of the ceremonies, galas and events introducing new products, food and drink services lacked travel and tourism agencies – the main audience for these events. Pham Dang Quyen, Vice Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee, also expressed his regrets because new local tourism products are unclear and unattractive. Tourist arrivals overloaded services during peak times, but tourist attractions were empty during the low time.

 

At the closing ceremony of the National Tourism Year 2015, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh handed the flag to the host of the National Tourism Year 2016 - Phu Quoc - Mekong Delta, themed “Explore the Southern Land” to Kien Giang province.

Insufficient time for preparing events was said to cause this, while the budget for advertisement was limited. Investment resources for transport, urban and tourism infrastructure were not enough to meet new development requirements. Many localities lacked coordination with each other during the National Tourism Year. Therefore, to avoid repetitive shortcomings in future National Tourism Years, host localities need to build locally typical products and services. When events are organised, it is important to define key audience. In addition to State funds, they can mobilise funds from other sources. Coordination among localities needs to be strengthened to create effective tourism products.