NINH BINH, Vietnam, 19 April 2021: Domestic travel is a lifesaver for the country’s tourism industry, the Vietnam Tourism Association’s vice chairman Vu The Binh told forum delegates last week
Vietnam News Agency said: “thousands of representatives from tourism management agencies and enterprises” gathered in the northern province of Ninh Binh a national domestic tourism forum with themed ‘Domestic Tourism – Power Force for Recovering Vietnam’s Tourism in New Normal Situation’.
The forum leaders noted that in the past domestic tourism played second fiddle to the international tourism market, but all that changed.
“Domestic tourism has never been considered a main power force of the sector; as a result, it has not been properly recognised,” the vice-chairman told local medial. “Tourism enterprises have not defined clearly the demands, interests and favourite products and services that Vietnamese people like, which is a weak point of the sector.”
Covid-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need for the Vietnamese tourism sector to focus on the market of nearly 100 million people.
Hanoi Travel Agents Association chairman and director of Hanoitourist, Phung Quang Thang told VNA sports tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) are trending with travellers residents in Hanoi.
“Tourists tend to go in small groups, book online and use their own means of transportation,” he said.
The event hosted various signing ceremonies between NinhBinh province’s authorities, the Ninh Binh Tourism Department, Ninh Binh Tourism Association and Xuan Truong Construction Enterprise and various agencies and localities including Vietnam Airlines, the Vietnam Tourism Association, the HCM City Tourism Association, authorities of Da Nang City and Can Tho City and the Vietnam MICE Tourism Club.
The forum identified as curtain raiser event for the annual Vietnam Travel Mart (VITM) 2021 due to take place in Hanoi on 5 to 8 May, called on travel agents to create new travel products geared for domestic travel while developing niche markets such as golf tourism and the lucrative events market such as company incentives.
In the past, incentive schemes for Vietnamese sale executives employed in major corporations concentrated on reward trips to Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Now the ongoing Covid-19 outbreaks are forcing companies to switch to domestic incentive travel reward schemes.
(Source: News Vietnam News Agency)
