Tourism sector renewing image

Renewing image

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism organized a conference on correcting management of accommodations across the country in early September 2016. The first inspection was implemented in Da Nang-Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa-Binh Thuan.

The results show that high-level hotels and resorts have stably developed with high sense of brand conservation, modern material facilities and professional style of work of staff. However, material facilities and services in many three-star hotels have been downgraded. Therefore, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has extended the time to three months for these hotels to overcome shortcomings. If they do not improve service quality after three months, their stars will be down.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism will promote inspection of accommodations across the country. An inspection team will guide and direct high-level resorts and hotels with three to five stars to ensure service quality following national standards, and intensify propaganda to raise community awareness on the accommodations with high quality and good brand.

According to Hanoi Department of Tourism Director Do Dinh Hong, renewing the Vietnamese tourism image requires a more friendly tourism environment and a better range of tourism products.

Changing thinking

Vietnam set the target to turn tourism into the key economic sector by 2020, striving to attract 14-15 million of international tourists with an average growth of 12-14 percent a year during the 2015-2020 period.

The Vietnamese tourism sector needs to change thinking to accomplish the goal, while localities must integrate tourism programs into their socioeconomic development plans.

The prime minister directed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with the Ministry of Finance to consider the establishment of the tourism development fund for tourism promotion, product development, human resource training and institutional capacity improvement of the tourism sector.

He assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to cooperate with ministries, departments and localities to strictly control service quality of accommodations and tourist destinations, while resolutely handling violations, even revoking business licenses.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was also asked to provide the overall assessment and forecast the demand on human resources in the tourism sector. They need to propose solutions to overcome shortages of tour guide, especially Chinese, Korean and Japanese-speaking tour guide. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs was requested to urgently issue the national framework of qualifications in the tourism sector. In addition, the recognition of the Vietnam Tourism Occupational Skills Standards and the implementation of the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Tourism Professionals was mentioned as necessary.

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism General Director Nguyen Van Tuan, to improve tourism quality, the administration will review all hotels across the country and downgrade hotels that have not met requirements in terms of material facilities and services. Renewing Vietnamese tourism image will be implemented throughout the country.

Thanh Tam