Vietnamese tourism promotion in 4th IR faces difficulties

Fan Yang's famous show of bubble art is the "handshake" of the Vietnam Tourism Association with this talented artist in contributing to promoting the image of Vietnam's destination. (Photo: Xuan Mai/Vietnam+)

Hanoi (VNA) - According to experts, the establishment of representative offices in key markets is important and urgent in this period. Meanwhile, sadly, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has not yet had an official tourism promotion office abroad.

Countries usually spend from 60-100 million USD per year on tourism promotion while Vietnam only spends about 2 million USD per year.

Many experts believe that to attract more international visitors with a revenue of about 1,000-5,000 USD per person, they must spend at least one USD/pax for promotion. So to attract about 20 million international visitors according to the 2020 plan, the entire industry must spend a minimum of 20 million USD.

According to the Head of the Secretariat of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, Hoang Nhan Chinh, it is necessary to have a strategy of advertising and marketing, in which the human element is extremely important.

Vietnam International Tourism Fair 2019, a place to promote domestic and international destinations, is held annually (Photo: Xuan Mai/Vietnam +)

“The Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board has attracted nine donors, each of whom contributes 5 billion VND over a three-year period. So far, we have 45 billion VND. We want to attract more sponsors to increase donations to this fund," Chinh said.

Each year, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism also participates in dozens of international tourism promotion fairs, but the traditional way of doing this is not effective. Because in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution boom, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism needs to hold the position of "conductor" and mobilize the cooperation of other units in using more modern advertising channels such as Google, Facebook, taking advantage of the voices of celebrities, and needs specialization for each market.

“When I told my international partners and friends that Vietnam had no official tourism promotion office in international markets, no one believed it. I think that all businesses and tourists in Vietnam want to have an official network of tourism promotion offices in other countries. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, for instance, have 20-30 tourism promotion offices in countries. Thailand alone has 4 offices in Japan and 5 offices in China, ”said Mr. Dinh Ngoc Duc, Director of Tourism Market Department under Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

With that concern, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said it has implemented many ways.

Recently, the Administration has nominated several influential individuals to be Vietnam tourism ambassadors in some markets. In particular, Mr. Li Xuong Can is appointed as Vietnam's Tourism Ambassador in the Republic of Korea. After that, Mr. Ly Xuong Can proposed himself to be the representative of Vietnam tourism promotion in the Republic of Korea.

The Vietnamese side signed a cooperation agreement specifying the plan of activities that Ly Xuong Can will carry out as a tourism promotion representative of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in the Republic of Korea with supervision and coordination of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Currently, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism is also coordinating with the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board  to consider and report to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Topurism for approval of the policy for setting up Vietnam tourism promotion office in London (the UK) and then the office in Australia./.

Xuan Mai (Vietnam +)