To learn about the development of Vietnamese tourism industry and tourism development cooperation with Japan, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
Could you briefly introduce the capacity and achievements of the tourism industry in recent years, especially contents related to Japanese market development?
In the past 20 years, Vietnam’s tourism industry has achieved robust growth, importantly contributed to the country’s socioeconomic development, created millions of jobs for the society, generated positive impacts on economic restructuring, and introduced the image of beautiful, enthusiastic, friendly, hospitable dynamic people and country of Vietnam to international friends.
The tourism infrastructure and service system has been constantly expanded in both quantity and quality, with over 13,700 accommodation establishments and nearly 300,000 rooms, including 589 hotels rated 3-5 stars with 62,029 rooms, more than 1,200 international tour operators, and thousands of local travel firms capable of serving tens of millions of international and domestic tourists a year. Many tourism centres are being formed across the country to provide development momentum for this sector.
Despite numerous difficulties and challenges, Vietnam’s tourism industry has maintained stable recovery and growth since 2009. In 2012, although global economic recession impacted the regional and global tourism industry, Vietnam’s tourism industry still managed to welcomed 6.85 million international travellers and 32.5 million domestic tourists, and raked in VND160 trillion of revenue. In 2013, the sector was forecast to serve 7.5 million international visitors and 35 million domestic travellers and fetch VND200 trillion of revenue, thus completing the target set for 2015 two years ahead of schedule. This is a remarkable achievement of the tourism industry, where the role of the business community is decisive. The very investment for branding development and quality maintenance of tourism businesses has positioned destinations of localities and regions and enhanced the competitiveness of the tourism industry.
Vietnam’s tourism industry has made great progress in developing the Japanese tourist market, especially after tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Japan was boosted in 2005. The two countries issued a joint declaration on tourism cooperation and established the Vietnam – Japan Tourism Committee.
Japanese tourist arrivals to Vietnam increased 2.75 times from 2003 to 2012, representing an average annual growth of 12 percent. In 2012, nearly 580,000 Japanese visitors arrived in Vietnam, up 19.7 percent over 2011, accounting for 8.42 percent of total international arrivals to Vietnam, and ranking third among foreign tourist arrivals to the country (after just China and South Korea). In the first 10 months of 2013, nearly 500,000 Japanese tourists visited Vietnam, up 5.6 percent year on year.
In the 2006-2012 period, Vietnamese tourists to Japan increased 2.2 folds, or an average annual growth rate of 14 percent. In 2012, Vietnamese tourists to Japan totalled more than 55,000, up 34.7 percent over 2011. In the first eight months of 2013, as many as 53,000 Vietnamese tourists went to Japan, up 52 percent year on year.
To facilitate travel, Vietnam has exempted visas for Japanese tourists since 2004. Meanwhile, Japan has applied multiple entry visas for Vietnamese citizens since July 2013. Currently, four major Japanese cities, namely Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka, have direct flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Could you please talk about action plans and strategic directions of the Vietnamese tourism sector for the upcoming time to better present the image of “Vietnam – Timeless charm” globally?
The Vietnam tourism development strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, defines seven groups of fundamental solutions: Product development; technical infrastructure development; human resource training and development; market development and branding; tourism development investment and policy; international cooperation; and State tourism management. Among these seven groups of solutions, the solution to build and develop high-quality products, maintain product quality and manage destinations is the most important factor to bring the image of “Vietnam – Timeless charm” to tourists and enhance the prestige and brand of Vietnamese tourism.
Vietnam started to build and promote the tourism brand name with the slogan “Vietnam – Timeless charm” in 2012. And now, at the advice of EU tourism specialists, the Vietnam tourism marketing plan to 2015″ and “Vietnam tourism marketing strategy to 2020″ were built and are pending approval with the hope that Vietnam’s tourism will assert its own brand name by 2020.
The Vietnam tourism development strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, defines Japan as a key market, with the ambitious objective of attracting 1 million Japanese visitors in 2015. So, does the Vietnamese tourism sector have any investment projects and policies to realise this objective?
The Vietnamese tourism industry strives to attract about 1 million Japanese visitors in 2015. Vietnam always sees Japan as one of its most important tourist markets. In 2012, Japanese tourist arrivals to Vietnam reached 570,000, ranking third among countries with tourists visiting Vietnam (after China and South Korea). To achieve this objective Vietnam, the tourism sector needs to do the following two groups of tasks well:
Firstly, Japanese tourists in Vietnam will be provided the best service as they will tend to introduce Vietnam to their friends, family members and loved ones – potential tourists of Vietnam in the future.
Secondly, tourism promotion will be strengthened in Japan in both scale and form. To do so, it is necessary to boost tourism cooperation between national tourism agencies, tourism associations and tourism businesses of the two countries; organise promotion activities at international tourism fairs in Japan; host media activities to introduce Vietnam’s tourism to Japanese newspapers and TV channels; publish Vietnamese tourism publications in Japanese language; and increase information in Japanese on the websites administered by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). Specifically, VNAT took part in JATA Tourism Expo hosted by the Japan Association of Travel Agents in September 2013 to introduce beach tourism and resorts in central Vietnam to Japanese tourists and attended the bilateral working group meeting with the Japan National Tourism Organisation in October 2013. Besides, VNAT planned to open the Vietnam Tourism Promotion Office in Japan.
To maintain and sustain growth as well as to make tourism a driving economic sector, what are the roles of the State and the coordination of ministries and branches? How do you think about these roles in the coming time?
More than any other economic sectors, tourism is a general economic sector with a very strong inter-regional and inter-sector connectivity. Tourism products are formed with the inputs of many other sectors; thus, good linkage and coordination with other sectors is essential. However, the current coordination of ministries and sectors remains lax.
The Government always cares for, supports and facilitates tourism development. The Government plans to issue a resolution on a number of measures to tourism development acceleration for the 2013-2020 period which will specify a number of breakthrough policies and solutions to remove barriers and difficulties to the development of tourism sector, as well as of tourism companies. The State Steering Committee on Tourism will provide timely guidance for better inter-regional and inter-sector coordination, as well as solutions to address existing weaknesses.
Ministries and branches strengthen close coordination with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to create intensive and effective coordination, timely propose policies and measures for the Government to enact to address difficulties against tourism businesses.
To promote the roles of ministries and branches in the coming time, it is essential to accelerate sectoral and regional coordination and strengthen State management over tourism. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism provides overall guidance; the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism enhances its capacity in tourism management; and localities raise their roles and responsibilities in managing tourism and preserving tourism values.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
