Not just 8 million, but 12 million visitors

Today, July 5, the Vietnam Tourism Association held a conference to implement Resolution 82 dated May 18, 2023 of the Government on key tasks and solutions to accelerate recovery and accelerate effective and sustainable tourism development.

Mr. Doan Van Viet, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that this is the first conference to specify the tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister to the Vietnamese tourism industry, along with the Action Plan to implement Resolution 82 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued in Decision 1726 dated July 4, 2023, all aiming at the goal of developing the tourism industry in a focused and key manner, truly becoming a spearhead economic sector.

Mr. Cao Tri Dung, Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, said that the city identifies tourism as one of the three pillars of local economic development.

To implement Resolution 82, in addition to widely disseminating the resolution, Da Nang has implemented a series of measures, such as coordinating to promote local tourism; designing and orienting the formation of a new product ecosystem suitable for the industry structure that has fundamentally changed after the pandemic, thereby preparing a product system aimed at specialized and small-scale demand groups, increasing experiences and increasing value for tourists.

The city also researches new markets and potential markets to promote quickly, strongly and extensively. Along with that, it strengthens the recovery capacity of the service system, improves the quality of human resources, the quality of tourist services, and creates a secure, safe and friendly environment.

Thanks to that, Mr. Dung said, up to this point, Da Nang is one of the localities with the best tourism recovery. The number of domestic visitors exceeded the peak of 2019, international visitors reached 70-80% of the target because the large market, China, has not fully recovered for some objective reasons. Da Nang expects to surpass the peak of tourism in 2019 in 2024.

Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, assessed that the number of international visitors to Vietnam has increased rapidly but has not met expectations because other countries are also competing fiercely and the economic recession around the world is still severe.

Therefore, if we do not do well and do not have good products, we cannot attract the desired number of visitors. “In the first 6 months of the year, Vietnam welcomed 5.6 million visitors and the number of 8 million international visitors this year is certainly achievable, but the Government and the whole country's expectations for the tourism industry do not stop at 8 million. Therefore, businesses must try harder, must reach over 10 million, even 12 million international visitors,” Mr. Binh emphasized.

Open-door policy creates pressure for change

Recently, the National Assembly passed the revised Law on Entry and Exit with a very open policy, creating more favorable conditions for the implementation of electronic visa applications as well as the length of stay for foreigners entering Vietnam. Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh assessed that this is very good news for those working in tourism, because the industry has been waiting for a long time for this bottleneck to be resolved to attract international visitors.

According to Mr. Cao Tri Dung, the new visa policy will open a "runway" for many new customer streams, especially proactive customer streams, family customer streams, and individual customer streams. This trend will put pressure on many services, forcing them to change to adapt.

He said that the open visa policy will help increase the competitiveness of Vietnam's destinations in general and localities in particular in accessing international tourist sources. Certainly, in the remaining 6 months of 2023 and the following years, we will record a significant increase in the number of international visitors to Vietnam, especially individual visitors and those using e-visas.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh said that tourism businesses will have the opportunity to build longer-term tourism products, attract customers in markets with higher spending capacity, longer stays, as well as build longer-term business plans.

However, that is only a necessary condition. The sufficient condition for Vietnam tourism to be more attractive, more competitive and create stronger attraction from international markets is to deploy a series of synchronous solutions, from creating unique and attractive tourism products to promoting and advertising strongly, systematically and professionally; managing destinations, security and safety, especially creating favorable conditions for tourists when traveling in Vietnam.