In an interview with DTiNews, the deputy director of the Institute of Tourism Development Research, Pham Trung Luong, talked about measures that could promote the tourism industry.
One Vietnamese booth at an exhibition held in Berlin was blamed
for mistakenly showing an image of a Chinese tourist destination
Our government has tried to promote and improve the Vietnam's tourism industry since 2000 but has made little progress. What's your opinion on this problem?
Our promotion isn't effective because we're still doing things in an unprofessional way, so we haven't been able to give tourists what they really want. Furthermore, our promoters aren't the ones with the best understanding of the situation so they're not the right people to make these decisions.
So what's the cause of those shortcomings?
The tourism sector has been divided and then merged with other agencies six times. It should be thought of as a business-like sector but last time, it was merged with the Culture and Sport sectors. Our leaders must realise the industry's true nature in order to create suitable policies.
Besides, our agencies haven't collaborated with each other properly and this leads to weak human resources and poor finance management.
What do you think our promotion should be like?
According to our initial research, 70-80% of international tourists come to Vietnam because they heard good stories from friends and relatives, not because they visited our booths at tourism fairs or were persuaded by our adverts on CNN and BBC.
It'll be great if we can also promote our country via movies as South Korea does. In addition, we need close cooperation between agencies in order to develop strategies for selling souvenir items or guild training to attract tourists.
Vietnam's tourism industry is considered a mess right now. What do you think about this situation?
It's such a shame because we have huge potential but we don't know how to exploit and develop it. This situation can only change when the leaders realise our disadvantages and shortcomings. We also need devoted and experienced promoters in the field.
What about the promotion fund?
Promotion is only effective when we have some grasp on customer psychology, yet we haven't done any research on this issue. Periodic reviews are necessary to appraise how effectively funds are being spent.
