Adequate investment needed for Vietnam's tourism to enhance competitiveness within ASEAN: Communications expert Le Quoc Vinh said that Vietnamese tourism needs to change the way it is promoted and take advantage of development opportunities. (Photo: Courtesy)

Tourism industry facing many challenges

In the first 10 months of 2023, the number of international tourists coming to Vietnam has reached nearly 10 million (more than 9,998 million), increasing 4.6 times over the same period last year, exceeding the whole year's plan target; domestic visitors reached 98.7 million; total revenue from tourists reached 582.6 trillion VND.

According to the review made by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, tourism is a bright spot in economic recovery. The results of tourism recovery have a pervasive impact on many fields, contributing to improving the three growth drivers of the economy which are investment, export and consumption.

However, at the Conference on Rapid and Sustainable Development of Vietnam Tourism that took place on November 15, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that international tourists in the first 10 months of 2023 only equal to 69% compared to the same period in 2019. Domestic tourists, after a period of strong growth in 2022, are showing signs of slowing down. The tourism industry faces many challenges, difficulties and unsolving issues, which have lasted for many years.

Minister Nguyen Van Hung said that currently the traditional key market is opening gradually, but has not regained the growth rate as before the pandemic. At the same time, the work of connecting and exploiting new and potential markets is still slow and faces many difficulties.

In addition, policy communication, updating, and promoting information about new regulations of Vietnamese tourism are limited and not timely at international sources due to the lack of a national tourism promotion office system. Destination management in some localities shows a lack of decisiveness and does not promptly handle environmental pollution and waste issues, which also affects the image and brand of Vietnamese tourism.

Besides, there is a trend of visitors from some key markets of Vietnam wanting to choose nearby destinations instead of long distance destinations. Slow connection and restoration of international flight frequencies as before the COVID-19 pandemic; other influencing factors such as inflation, rising exchange rates, political conflicts, and reduced tourist budgets have greatly affected the number of international visitors to Vietnam recently.

Sharing his opinion, Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, assessed that in first 10 months, the tourism industry has tried but still has not achieved resuls as expected. Although international tourists market and the domestic market are growing rapidly, but the pace has slow down. In particular, Mr. Vu The Binh said that provinces and cities are focusing too much on organizing superficial activities such as festivals, political, cultural, and economic events associated with tourism in the country, however, the set goal has not achieved yet. Meanwhile, Mr. Binh emphasized that tourists care only about traditional cultural identity. Therefore, if the spending on these events were transferred to international tourism promotion activities, it would be more effective.

Adequate investment needed for Vietnam's tourism to enhance competitiveness within ASEAN: Vietnam tourism still faces many difficulties and challenges. (Photo: VNA)

In addition, there is another challenge, which is the serious lack of human resources in the tourism market. Currently, the tourism industry only attracts about 60% of workers. Meanwhile, many highly skilled workers have moved to other industries, and many tourism businesses have to use untrained workers to serve customers. In particular, investment in research and development of new tourism products is too little.

The communication campaign needed a focus

Providing a solution, communications expert Le Quoc Vinh, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Le Invest Corporation, said that we should no longer promote tourism through general images of the country and people. Instead, focus on outstanding value in a long-term branding strategy. At the same time, we can choose unique characteristics for each short-term campaign, targeting each potential customer segment.

"The communication campaign must be focused, with a simple message, promoting a unique and different value, to create a great attraction effect," Mr. Vinh said.

Mr. Le Quoc Vinh also said that each tourist area will have its own strengths. Therefore, it is necessary to find out resolutions stemming from its strength and design specific tourism products exerting its advantages. Of course, those new products must be part of the existing tourism ecosystem, enriching already strong tourism products.

Regarding to the issue of tourism competition among countries in the ASEAN region, expert Le Quoc Vinh affirmed that ASEAN is both a partner and a competitor in the tourism industry.

"Cooperation and connection with ASEAN countries to create regional tourism solutions and services is a way to promote Vietnam's tourism development. The number of tourists coming to Siam Reap (Cambodia) has increased quite high and it would be a feasible solution to attract a portion of tourists to the Mekong Delta in an opportunity to extend their vacation," Mr. Le Quoc Vinh emphasized.

However, in other aspects, Mr. Vinh also commented that Vietnam still has to compete with countries in Southeast Asia. Therefore, we must create more attractive tourism products. At the same time, tourism promotion activities must be more flexible, targeting each small segment, instead of taking a general and mass approach as we have been doing for a long time.

"I realize that most ASEAN countries have a systematic, modern and constantly innovating tourism promotion system, especially Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, etc. They are flexible in making swift decisions and deploy directly to target markets. Therefore, Vietnam's tourism industry needs to quickly innovate and take advantage of opportunities to breakthrough," said expert Le Quoc Vinh.