The conference was held in person at the Government headquarters and connected online to the headquarters of the People's Committees of provinces and cities across the country.
Prime Minister chairs conference on rapid and sustainable tourism development - Photo: VGP
In his opening speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that tourism is a key economic sector according to Resolution No. 08 of the Politburo, contributing significantly to job creation and livelihoods for people, hunger eradication, poverty reduction, investment attraction, growth promotion and economic restructuring, preservation and promotion of traditional, historical and cultural values of the nation, and improvement of people's material and spiritual life.
Tourism is considered a practical and effective bridge of international exchange, for tourists all over the world to visit, experience, understand more, share more, and love more the country, culture and people of Vietnam.
Tourism still faces many challenges
This is the second conference held this year, the head of the Government assessed that Vietnam's tourism has improved in the past 10 months. By the end of October 2023, the total number of international visitors reached about 10 million, domestic tourists reached 99 million.
However, international tourists in the first 10 months of 2023 were only 69% of the same period in 2019 (before the pandemic). Domestic tourists, after a period of strong growth in 2022, are showing signs of slowing down.
The tourism industry faces many challenges, obstacles, and problems that have lasted for many years and many terms and have not been resolved.
Therefore, to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector, to achieve the goal of welcoming at least 35 million international visitors and 120 million domestic visitors by 2025, and 50 million international visitors and 160 million domestic visitors by 2030, Vietnam tourism needs to truly innovate its thinking and approach with creative, innovative, synchronous and effective measures.
Therefore, the Prime Minister suggested finding solutions to the problems for Vietnam's tourism to develop quickly and sustainably: That is, identifying the opportunities and challenges of tourism; sharing successful experiences of Vietnam and other countries in the world.
He also asked associations, businesses, researchers, experts, ministries and localities to propose breakthrough, specific and feasible solutions. Focus on clarifying institutional issues, mechanisms, policies, resource mobilization to develop infrastructure, brands, human resource training, coordination between units...
Research some visa policies for international visitors
Regarding the reasons why international arrivals to Vietnam have not met expectations, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that some traditional key markets have opened up step by step and have not yet regained the growth rate as before the pandemic. Connecting and exploiting new markets and potential markets is still slow and facing many difficulties.
Slow connection and slow recovery of international flight frequency to pre-COVID-19 levels. Other factors such as inflation, rising exchange rates, political conflicts, and declining tourist spending have greatly affected the number of international visitors to Vietnam. Policy communication, updates, and promotion of information on new regulations for Vietnam tourism are still limited.
Mr. Hung said the key solutions are to continue to strengthen inter-sectoral coordination, research, and propose mechanisms and policies to further facilitate tourism recovery and development.
The study proposes short-term visa exemption for tourists from some large-scale, potential markets such as China and India to stimulate tourism, especially during the low season.
Expand unilateral visa exemption for citizens of countries with higher development levels than Vietnam and large tourism spending such as Australia, Canada, the US, and the remaining countries in the European Union...
Strengthen inter-regional and inter-local coordination, form value chains, tourism products and build a civilized, safe and friendly tourism environment. Resolutely implement tourism promotion activities, speed up the recovery of the international tourist market...
A series of tourism CEOs give advice
Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Chairwoman of Sovico Holdings, pointed out that aviation is not profitable yet; tens of thousands of hotel rooms are frozen, and entertainment and restaurant services are all stagnant.
Therefore, she believes that urgent action is needed to turn Vietnam into an international tourist destination with a unique identity in culture, cuisine, and resorts. In particular, it is necessary to create conditions for aviation to attract the fastest, launch a national action program to promote tourism to airports and localities...
According to a representative of Vingroup, it is time to remove tourism bottlenecks. There should be a flexible visa exemption policy, visa exemption for some key markets in some short-term periods.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of Vietravel Board of Directors, suggested continuing to improve the legal framework to promote tourism development, especially in guest management and tourism development. It is necessary to update the tourism development strategy, from the Black Pink event to Vietnam, there needs to be international events to attract tourists, bring international events to Vietnam...
From the recommendations, the Prime Minister assigned local ministries and branches to clearly assign responsibilities, promote the guiding role of national tourism agencies, the leading role of major tourist centers, and link regions to drive growth.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism urgently submitted to the Prime Minister for approval the Tourism System Planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045.
