Tourism sector now targeting quality

Despite the boom in tourism, VNAT believes its development faces challenges in terms of managing travel operations, tour guides and tourist sites. “This year, the sector will focus on enhancing management of travel operations and tour guides across the country,” says Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Ngo Hoai Chung.

It will focus on organizations and individuals who violate legal regulations related to tour business and tour guiding, in a bid to improve the quality of service.

VNAT has established an organizing committee and evaluation council, and sent two teams of experts to inspect the first four tourist attractions, including Hanoi’s Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Lao Cai Province’s Sa Pa Town, Quang Binh Province’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, and Ninh Binh Province’s Bai Dinh Temple.

The government assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to take the lead in developing evaluation criteria, announcing development indicators and ranking tourist attractions in order to improve the quality.

The project has identified six categories of criteria, including tourism resources; products and services; management capability; infrastructure; community participation; and the level of visitor satisfaction.

In accordance with the campaign on strengthening management of tourist attractions, the tourism sector has to cooperate with local authorities to enhance the management of the environment and ensure security and safety for tourists.

In addition, the tourism sector is required to improve the quality of tourist products, apply a code of behavior for tourism, classify and rank tourist attractions.

The ministry recently issued a code of conduct for international and local tourists, tour operators and locals at tourism spots. The etiquette guidebook is aimed at showing travel agents how to be service-minded and travelers how to behave, for example by standing in line and respecting local customs and culture.

Chung also suggested raising awareness of local authorities regarding the management of tourist attractions, as well as improving the quality of human resources. Regularly inspecting the adherence to the state’s regulations on tourist activities, controlling the quality of services and ensuring environmental sanitation in tourist attractions are needed, he added.