Viet Nam's tourism seeks higher place in ASEAN

The General Department of Tourism said last year in ASEAN, Viet Nam ranked fifth in the number of international guests with 10 million, equivalent to 31% of Thailand (32.6 million); 37% of Malaysia (26.8 million); 61% of Singapore; 83% of Indonesia (12 million).

Regarding the competitive competence index, it reported that in a report of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Viet Nam ranked 67th out of 136 economies, marking eight steps up against 2015.  

Last year, Viet Nam spent about US$ 2.5 million on national tourism promotion. Meanwhile, regional peers invested about US$ 100 million on this field.

So far, Viet Nam offered visa exemption for citizens from 22 countries and territories; Indonesia (169); Singapore (158); Malaysia (155); Thailand (61).

Malaysia set up 35 tourism representative offices abroad; Thailand with 28; Singapore with 23. However, Viet Nam has yet founded any tourism representative office in other countries.

However, Viet Nam’s tourism growth rate ranked  second in the region. In the 2011-2016 period, Viet Nam’s tourism expanded 11%; lower than Myanmar (37%); and Cambodia (12%).  

Necessary tasks

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has already proposed the Government a string of measures on measures to convert tourism into a leading economic sector and attain 30% of growth pace in 2017.

In the short term, the Ministry planned to speed up tourism promotion activities to take advantage of the 25th APEC Summit in 2017 to advertise tourism and disburse around VND 30 billion on tourism promotion after the tourism promotion fund is completed.

The country will broaden the pilot program on e-visa and continue to provide visa exemption for citizens from the five European countries of the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

Security, food hygiene, environmental sanitation will be enforced.

The country will promote activities to exploit the domestic market, especially in peak seasons and national festivals and holidays; and promote potential markets, including China, the RoK, Russia, the US, and the EU./.

By Kim Anh