Press conference announcing the organization of the "Vietnam Tourism Human Resources Forum 2019"

Accordingly, the first forum, themed "Training Human Resources for Vietnam's Tourism Industry to Develop a Key Economic Sector," will officially take place at 9:00 AM on April 12, 2019, at the Reunification Hall, 135 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, District 1. This marks the first time Ho Chi Minh City, as well as the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, has organized this forum.

In order to provide a new and more specific direction for maintaining and developing the quality of Vietnam's tourism workforce in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular in the future, thereby promoting tourism development, attracting a large number of tourists to the city, and increasing their length of stay and spending, the Forum will be held every two years.

The forum is expected to attract more than 300 delegates, including leaders from the Central Government, relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies; provincial and city Departments of Tourism and Culture, Sports and Tourism nationwide; leading experts from state management agencies, businesses, and tourism training institutions both domestically and internationally; state-owned and private enterprises operating in the tourism sector; and journalists and media representatives. Within the framework of the forum, Central Government leaders will deliver directives on the perspective and orientation of training high-quality human resources for tourism, contributing to the development of tourism as a key economic sector of Vietnam.

The forum also provides an opportunity for state management agencies, businesses, and tourism training institutions to meet, exchange ideas, and find solutions to improve the quality of human resource training for Vietnamese tourism; to objectively, comprehensively, and scientifically assess the current human resources for Vietnamese tourism; to analyze the current situation and needs for training high-quality human resources; and to learn from the experiences of tourism training institutions both domestically and internationally. From this, recommendations will be made to the Ministries, Departments, and the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City regarding human resources and innovation in human resource training for the tourism industry.

Vietnam's tourism workforce has made remarkable progress in both quantity and structure, and its quality has gradually improved, better meeting the practical requirements of the industry. Currently, there are 346 tourism training institutions nationwide, from primary to university level, with Ho Chi Minh City alone having 63 such institutions (24 universities, 20 colleges, and 19 vocational schools). However, some shortcomings remain in the organization, training, and development of human resources, such as the significant increase in training scale but still failing to meet actual needs; the curriculum system not being truly suitable; the quality of the teaching staff not fully meeting practical requirements; the linkages between schools and businesses and between different stakeholders not being truly close and synchronized; and the policies and legal framework for organizing tourism human resource training not being reformed and not creating favorable conditions for training high-quality human resources for the tourism industry.

Topics for discussion at the "Vietnam Tourism Human Resources Forum 2019":

Morning Plenary Session:

- Topic 1: Current situation and perspectives on reforming human resource training for Vietnam's tourism industry.

- Topic 2: Policy Planning in Human Resource Development for Tourism

Afternoon plenary session:

- Topic 1: Training to meet the human resource needs of tourism businesses

- Topic 2: Effective application of new technologies in training human resources for the tourism industry

The Anh