Tourism welcomes New Year with joy and affliction

Tourism welcomes New Year with joy and affliction

Tourism welcomes New Year with joy and affliction

Dao Loan

Representatives of Danang tourism authorities welcome the first visitors to the city in the New Year – PHOTO: NHU TAM

HCMC – The tourism sector welcomes the New Year with joy at a record number of tourists, but there are still concerns.

Authorities and many tour operators across the country on the first day of the New Year held a ceremony to welcome the first international visitors of the year.

In Danang, the first international tourists from Singapore arrived on a Silk Air flight, which carried 150 passengers to the central coast city for leisure travel.

Good signals

For Danang 2016 was a successful year for tourism with 5.51 million arrivals, up 17.6% over the previous year. Of these, international visitors numbered 1.67 million, up 31.6%.

This year, it is forecast that the number of tourists to Danang, especially international visitors, will still record good growth, especially from two major source markets: South Korea and Japan. The Japanese market will significantly thrive thanks to the new air service connecting Osaka and Danang to be opened this quarter.

Currently, there are 20 international air routes to Danang, including 11 scheduled and nine chartered flights. In 2017, it is expected that there will be additional services from Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai) operated by Thai Airways, Vietjet Air and AirAsia and a route from Osaka by Jetstar Pacific.

Tran Chi Cuong, deputy director of the Danang Department of Tourism, said their top priority in 2017 was to create products for tourists and prepare services for a large number of visitors to the city during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week 2017.

“We have prepared for many tourist events, such as a fireworks festival that will last two months instead of just a few days. The preparations of infrastructure and services for APEC are also in the stage of acceleration, with a number of hotels having invested in more presidential suites… We expect 2017 to be another good year for Danang’s tourism,” Cuong told the Daily.

In HCMC, in the first morning of the New Year, German and English visitors on the early flights of Vietnam Airlines and Thai Airways were welcomed by the city’s leaders, tourism department and tour operators.

HCMC last year welcomed about 5.2 million international and 21.8 million domestic tourists. Revenues from tourism totaled VND103 trillion, a rise of 9% over the previous year.

This year, the city looks to welcome 5.6 million international and 24 million domestic visitors, with tourism revenues expected to surge to VND112 trillion.

Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the HCMC Department of Tourism, said the tourism industry focused on developing new products and events. In particular, river tours remain the top priority, followed by products tied to agriculture and rural areas, events on the pedestrian street of Nguyen Hue, places where foreigners usually gather such as Pham Ngu Lao and Bui Vien streets, and about four shopping promotional programs.

“We want to improve the quality of products and services for tourists. For example, the department will organize programs to improve services for tourists like training taxi drivers on how to display a proper behavior and to be tourist friendly,” Vu told the Daily.

Concerns

Many businesses have reported positive business results in 2016 and aim for high growth in 2017. However, there are still concerns about the quality of human resources and the management of tourist destinations in Vietnam.

Besides, the objective difficulties such as global uncertainties and the falls of some currencies will make travel to Vietnam more expensive and prompt tourists to choose nearer destinations.

Pham Ha, CEO of Luxury Travel, informed his company achieved growth of 20% in 2016 and is aiming for 25% this year. Luxury Travel will focus on emerging markets.

Regarding the common destination, visitors from major source markets such as Russia, China, North Europe and the U.S. will increase thanks to new routes. India, the Middle East and South Africa are the emerging markets which Vietnam’s tourism needs to tap.

However, the country should focus on human resources, good destination management, environment preservation and service diversification, eyeing the premium segment and improving tourism promotion activities at home and abroad.

In 2016, the country served more than 10 million international and 62 million domestic visitors, which is expected to rise to 11.5 million and 66.7 million respectively this year.

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