Hoi An is experimenting with digital ticket sales for ancient town tours.

According to the People's Committee of Hoi An City, from 1995 to the present, Hoi An has served domestic and international tourists by issuing "Hoi An Ancient Town Entrance Tickets," now called "Hoi An Ancient Town World Heritage Site Entrance Tickets."

The issuance of all-inclusive tour packages for tourists has received the approval of visitors and the business community, and has been recognized by UNESCO Asia-Pacific as a prime example of "using heritage to support heritage." Annual ticket sales revenue has steadily increased, reaching nearly 76.5 billion VND in 2013 and over 266 billion VND in 2018. From this revenue, Hoi An focuses on investing in the restoration and preservation of architectural heritage sites.

However, the methods of selling tickets, controlling ticket sales, and handling payments for the historical sites along the tour route are entirely manual, leading to many shortcomings that have yet to be fully resolved. Therefore, the most considered and highly feasible solution is to replace traditional entrance tickets for tourists with a "Tourist Passport" - a digitalized ancient town tour card or ticket, issued by Hoi An City.

With this project, instead of selling tickets manually as before, digitalized entrance tickets fully integrate content including ticket prices as regulated by the Hoi An City People's Committee for visitors, information about tourist attractions and services in the ancient town. Tickets are issued as a package with optional visits to three attractions for Vietnamese citizens and five attractions for foreigners.

According to a decision by the People's Committee of Hoi An City, from now until June 2020, a trial will be conducted at 4 ticket counters and 21 historical sites; by January 2021, the project will be finalized, and the equipment will be handed over from the partner supplier to officially put it into operation with a total investment of over 5.7 billion VND.

Tra My