New technologies and the rise of Industry 4.0 call for more creative and effective solutions to develop Vietnam's tourism industry, experts said during a conference in Hanoi on August 6.

Foreign tourists explore Ha Long Bay

Hosted by Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the conference was attended by experts and representatives of tourism businesses.

Tourism promotion activities play a crucial role in boosting the development of the industry, said Dinh Ngoc Duc, Director of the Tourism Market Department under the VNAT.

In the first six months of the year, the number of international tourist arrivals was on the rise, showing the success of promotion efforts.

“We promoted the right products, chose the right markets and had good workers on the job,” Duc said. “However, we admit that more can be done to boost the industry and we are not yet in line with other countries in the region because of a lack of professionalism and budget."

Duc said he expected the conference, titled "Promoting Tourism: Breaking-through Needed", would come up with suggestions to more effective promote Vietnam as a tourist destination.

Nguyen Tien Dat, Vice Director of the TransViet Company, said the limited budget should be allocated appropriately.

“In the era of technology and social networks, we shouldn’t follow the old ways,” said Dat. “Instead of organising costly roadshows to promote tourism, we use Facebook, Google and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), depending on different markets.”

“The fact is that promoting tourism through the emotional and truthful stories of KOLs and celebrities is very effective and attractive to the public.”

Duc agreed, saying: “we are not standing outside the trend of smart devices and technology”.

“Actually, VNAT has used Tik Tok, a media application for creating and sharing short videos,” said Duc. “We have produced 15,000 clips focusing on Vietnamese tourism. In August, we will continue to produce video clips to introduce destinations in the northern province of Ninh Binh. Vietnamese gastronomy will be a focus at the end of this year."

Duc also revealed the e-marketing strategy focused on building up the new website www.vietnam.travel.com to provide more information for tourists.

Hoang Nhan Chinh, director of the Travel Advisory Board (TAB), delivered some solutions including increasing the budget for promotion, improving the e-visa policy and focusing on the quality of tourists, not only quantity.

“I mean we should have particular policies to attract specific groups of tourists," Chinh said. "We don’t just target attracting more and more tourists but also try to make them spend more to increase the income for the tourism industry.”

Chinh revealed that TAB has many sponsors including Vingroup, Sun Group, Saigontourist, Hanoitourist and Vietnam Airlines, who have promised to fund promotion activities until 2021.

Vietnam continues to be an attractive destination for international tourists with the number of international visitors continuously reaching over 1 million people per month since the beginning of 2019, according to the statistics from the Vietnam Administration of Tourism.

In the first six months of 2019, Vietnam welcomed nearly 10 million international visitors, up 7.9 percent over the same period last year. The largest increase was in arrivals by road, up 24.9 percent, followed arrivals by air at 4.5 percent. It is estimated that this year Vietnam will receive 18 million international tourists.