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| Businesses constantly evolve to meet the new travel trends of tourists |
According to the leaders of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, to recover and develop the tourism sector in this new era, it’s necessary to re-aware and re-evaluate towards the more sustainable tourism, in which paying more attention to green growth, digital transformation, destination management, and human resources development.
New trends need change
Recently, at an event of the tourism sector held in Hue City, Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism shared a lot of noteworthy information, in which, the latest announcement of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) cited that international tourism is recovering and is expected to reach nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, with many attractions have been recovered or even surpassed the number of coming visitors and pre-pandemic revenue. However, the Asia-Pacific region is lagging behind. From January to September 2023, this area just only recovered 62% compared to the pre-pandemic, due to the slower reopening to international tourism.
Vietnam is the first country in ASEAN fully reopened its borders without any restrictions related to COVID-19 since March 2022. Over the last 2 years, the tourism sector has benefited from many favorable policies to push up the recovery process and support businesses, as well as workers working in the tourism industry. In the first 11 months of 2023, Vietnam welcomed 11.2 million international tourist arrivals, reaching a recovery of 69% compared to the same period of 2019 and surpassing the initial target of 8 million arrivals for the entire year.
As for Thua Thien Hue province, nearly 2.8 million tourist arrivals came to Hue in the first 11 months of 2023, with a notable increase in the number of international tourists, reaching over 942.000 arrivals, marking a growth of 370% year-on-year. This remarkable outcome reflects the effort of all stakeholders in reviving the tourism sector and contributing to national economic development while improving the well-being of local people.
However, according to Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, one of the emerging trends in the tourism sector post-pandemic is the increasing concern for sustainable tourism and the resilience of tourism. To recover and develop the tourism industry in this new era, there is a critical need for re-awareness and reconsideration of tourism towards greater sustainability, in which paying much attention to green growth, digital transformation, destination management, and the development of human resources. Furthermore, providing support and enhancing the capacity of tourism businesses also play an important part, as the majority of these businesses are micro, small, and medium-sized, making them vulnerable to potential crises in the future.
Training digital skills to tourism businesses
Currently, along with other industries, digital transformation in tourism is also an important requirement. In the framework of the seminar “Training digital skills for green tourism businesses” (which took place at the beginning of December), Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Permanent Deputy of the Provincial People’s Committee stated that digital transformation is one of the essential and core elements for Vietnamese businesses in the context of deepening integration and increasing competition. Digital transformation, especially digital skills is one of the top concerned goals of the businesses working in the tourism and service sectors. Through this, an environment for the businesses in the tourism and service sectors can be established so that they can together share and cooperate to provide tourists with increasingly diverse, high-quality, and efficient services.
According to Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the courses of training digital skills for green tourism businesses will solve one of the biggest concerns of the tourism industry. Especially, the shares of experienced international experts will provide the necessary knowledge and practical skills to promote the application of digital skills. Moreover, they will guide tourism enterprises in utilizing digital solutions to raise their competitiveness and foster innovation and flexibility.
The representatives of the businesses said that before the new trends of tourism, digital solutions for tourism businesses play an important role. This includes methods for digital marketing and social media, searching tools, online travel agencies, and digital transformation in tourism, etc. At present, the tourism sector is carrying out various solutions for digital transformation. The programs on training digital skills for tourism businesses need to be implemented more often with suitable content for each destination, making it easier for the businesses to apply them in practice, especially digital skills and digital marketing to promote the businesses’ presence in the digital environment, expanding their opportunities to access and attract more tourists from the Internet, thence pushing the tourism development.