Thua Thien-Hue develops smart tourism

Chairman of Thua Thien-Hue provincial People’s Committee Phan Ngoc Tho

Chairman of Thua Thien-Hue provincial People’s Committee Phan Ngoc Tho said that the Vietnamese tourism sector in general and that of Thua Thien-Hue are facing with both opportunities and challenges which required groundbreaking, timely, and creative changes in accordance with smart tourism development towards sustainable growth, and higher competitiveness. 

Chairman Tho added that the province targets to develop smart tourism in order to raise state management of tourism in a comprehensive and effective manner; diversify service quality; provide information for tourists and the community via smart tourism modals. 

The Forum focuses on these following main objectives including (1) developing smart tourism to comprehensively and effectively enhance the role of State management in local tourism; (2) diversifying form and raising service quality; advertise and provide tourists and community with information via smart tourism; (3) promoting socialization in tourism service investment, especially smart tourism application on the basis of incentive mechanisms and policies; and (4) developing safe, friendly and energetic tourism environment.

Specifically, a large number of comments were raised including building a digital database on tangible and non-tangle cultural heritages of Hue; construction of a software for users such as a portal on tourism, tourism apps, crafting of a 3D digital map on cultural heritages in Hue; building of management software for equipment infrastructure, tourism management centers especially smart transport system such as electric trams, smart bicycle system, and smart parking system. 

Delegates also discussed information supply for smart service applications, construction of smart tourism ecosystem, solutions to establishment of smart city in Hue, hotel management in Industry 4.0, and solutions to cultural and tourism promotion in the central city. 

The central province of Thua Thien-Hue targeted to attract about 4.7 million visitors in 2019 with 45 percent being foreigners, a rise of about 7 percent year on year.

The province, owning many UNESCO-recognized tangible and intangible heritage as well as beautiful beaches, aimed for VND 4.9 trillion (US$ 210.7 million) in tourism revenue in the year, up 10% compared to the previous year.

In 2018, Thua Thien-Hue welcomed more than 4.3 million visitors, a rise of 14 percent, with the number of foreign visitors rising 30%. Tourism revenue reached VND 4.47 trillion, up 27.1% compared to 2017./.

By Kim Anh