Detailed tourism reform needed

In a meeting with Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the National Administration of Tourism and other stakeholders on November 30, Dam also said that the plan should focus on measures to develop commercial and agricultural products as tourist souvenirs.

Vietstar Airlines Deputy General Director Luong Hoai Nam agreed that tourism products, not just souvenirs, will have to play a key role in restructuring the tourism industry.

Apart from souvenirs, Vietnam was seriously short of tourist attractions like interesting museums or amusement parks, he said

He also stressed the need to “expand and improve the quality” of existing tourism products.

Tuan noted at the meeting that the growth in the inbound tourist market was not balanced, with neighbouring countries and regions accounting for a disproportionate number of visitors. Tourists from Northeast Asia account for about 55 percent of total inbound visitors and those from Southeast Asia make up 16 percent.

Tourists from markets farther away remain minimal so far, Tuan said.

He also said that apart from underdeveloped transport infrastructure, the quality of tourism workers was another issue.

“Nearly half of the workers in the industry don’t receive any training. Those who have college degrees account for just 7.4 percent,” Tuan said.

Deputy PM Dam agreed that the tourism industry was facing a lot of challenges now and needed a restructuring boost to develop sustainably.

“The restructuring should first begin with tourism products, then move to inbound markets, labour quality, and investment in infrastructure,” he said.

He asked the National Administration of Tourism to map out a detailed timeline and development plan for key tourist destinations, as well as a transparent plan on spending of the State budget’s allocation for the sector that shows “who will be in charge of what.” -