The tourism industry is planning to connect with international markets to get ready for the recovery
Actively connecting
Recently, nearly 100 tourism businesses in 4 localities Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Da Nang, Quang Binh and nearly 100 travel agencies from 3 countries including Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore have participated in an online conference. This is the first online conference held on tourism of transnational enterprises and unprecedented.
Mr. Truong Thanh Minh, Director of the Provincial Tourism Promotion Information Center, said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand was Hue's second largest tourist market after South Korea. Some other countries in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, etc. are potential markets and are on the trend of choosing the Central region as a destination.
Therefore, through this conference, the tourism industry of the four localities focuses on introducing typical tourism products, opening up opportunities for cooperation and connecting tour routes to the three leading tourism markets of the Southeast Asia, especially the safe pick-up process when international travel returns to the new normal.
According to tourism businesses, in tourism promotion, advertising, cooperation, through meetings and signing contracts, direct reception of famtrip delegations, businesses coming to Hue or businesses in Hue going directly to markets will have clearer and more specific results.
But due to the impact of the pandemic, businesses cannot connect directly; Meanwhile, the travel needs of international tourists have more or less changed, it requires that suppliers must have more appropriate adjustments and changes.
Promotion and cooperation in online tourism is an inevitable trend when the pandemic is still severe, otherwise it will become passive when tourism recovers. In order to ensure safety and prevent from pandemics, especially when the pandemic re-emerges in the country, each business is a bridge point, ensuring the factors of not gathering crowds through applications in the cyber environment.
According to Mr. Truong Thanh Minh, to have the current online connection is the process of building relationships, through previous international fairs, the parties have had the opportunity to meet together; and now, need to connect to each other through Internet space. Therefore, in order to have more connections with more businesses, the tourism management agency of each country and each locality is responsible for the focal point and maximum support for businesses.
The tourism industry said that there will be more online conferences to connect and understand the needs of guests to have solutions to get ready for them. (Japanese tourists coming to Hue before the pandemic happened)
Proactively responding to new demands
Hue tourism industry informed that according to the plan, after the online conference connecting Southeast Asian tourism, it is expected that 4 localities will continue to organize online conferences to connect with Korean and Japanese travel. These are close and potential markets that can be resumed after the vaccine is widely used. After that, the connection was expanded to Europe, North America, and Australia markets.
The most important content discussed at the above online conference was the readiness of the parties to welcome each other's guests, when the policy of opening the "sky" of the countries is implemented. All sides informed that currently countries have a policy of deploying "vaccine passports", the return of tourists is showing very positive signs.
Mr. Le Nguyen Ngoc, Director of VM Travel Trading Service Co., Ltd - Hue branch, shared that after a long time of not being able to welcome guests, international travel agencies like VM Travel face many difficulties and have high expectations at the opening time to welcome guests back. Over the past time, the company has maintained contact with partners and they said that the Central region in general and Hue in particular is a safe destination. Through the connection, the company had the first agreements on exchanging guests for each other, small in number yet necessary for a warm-up.
Leaders of the Department of Tourism said that Vietnam is in the process of developing a scenario to welcome international tourists back. The view is to be very cautious and ensures the most safety criteria. Up to now, no specific time has been determined when the parties can welcome and serve guests. Although the domestic pandemic has made bad changes, through the connection, more or less, suggestions on the problems have been given for Hue tourism industry to have good "scenarios" when reopening to welcome visitors.
Malaysia, for example, is the market that is identified as Hue's potential in the future. Demand to visit the Central region is likely to increase through the information provided by businesses in partner countries.
However, specialized services for this market in Hue are still limited, especially in terms of religious and culinary services for Muslim customers. Early preparation is essential for businesses aiming to exploit this market.
The strength of tourism in the Central region is the convergence of a full range of products: culture - heritage, cuisine, entertainment, high-class resort, etc. These are the products that are confirmed by partners to be very suitable for the needs of tourists from other countries; in which, long-term vacation and ensuring safety are the most important products.
Story and photos: Duc Quang