Tourism Law amendment underway

The tourism sector needs new regulations

The Tourism Law 2005 has created an important legal basis for the tourism sector to bring into play its potential and utilize its resources to develop. Over the last decade, the sector has achieved significant progress. However, VNAT General Director Nguyen Van Tuan said that in the context of numerous changes in Vietnam and the world, the law needed to be amended to meet new requirements and create the most favorable legal framework for the domestic tourism sector to develop.

At the meetings, participants proposed many amendments related to the quality of human resources and accommodation facilities, the role and responsibility of the tourism associations of provinces and cities, the role of local tourism management authorities, the role of the Vietnam Hotel Association and local hotel associations in classifying hotels, tourism planning, and tourism products.

Travel firm deposits and tourism inspections were the matters of greatest concern to participants. Under existing regulations, travel agents offering inbound services have to pay a collateral deposit of VND250 million at banks, while those offering outbound services or both inbound and outbound services have to pay a double deposit, VND500 million.

Many participants shared the opinion that travel agents offering inland tours should also be required to pay collateral deposits like those offering inbound and/or outbound services. They explained that this requirement would help prevent the mushroom growth of travel agents and unhealthy competition among them. Hanoitourist Director Luu Duc Ke said the Tourism Law needed to be amended so that it would require travel firms to pay collateral deposits or buy business insurance.

In the opinion of Nguyen Van Tuan, if VNAT continues to be in charge of tourism management at a state level, it will be necessary to establish an independent department responsible for conducting inspections and dealing with violations.

Currently, many localities still lack independent tourism inspection departments. Their cultural inspectors are also in charge of tourism inspection but do not have the authority to deal with activities that violate tourism regulations.

Therefore, representatives of these localities proposed the establishment of independent tourism inspection departments and the availability of a regulation indicating the rights and responsibilities of these departments. In their opinion, the Tourism Law needs to be amended to consist of new chapters pertaining to specialized inspections and intellectual property, with provisions referring to the treatment of disputes and online, multi-level marketing.

Hoa Quynh