New Zealand tourists enjoy Vietnamese bread. Cuisine is one of the attractive factors of Vietnam tourism - Photo: QUANG DINH
As reported by Tuoi Tre Online , the World Economic Forum (WEF) has just announced that Vietnam's tourism development index in 2023 ranked 59th out of 119 countries and territories, behind Singapore (ranked 13th), Indonesia (ranked 22nd), Malaysia (ranked 35th) and Thailand (ranked 47th).
However, when the press reported the news and public opinion was interested, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration immediately spoke up: "The ranking results of this index do not reflect the true accuracy."
According to the World Economic Forum, in the ASEAN bloc, Singapore is the highest ranked country, ranked 13th. Countries ranked above Vietnam include: Indonesia ranked 22nd, Malaysia ranked 35th, Thailand ranked 47th.
According to this assessment, Vietnam ranked above the Philippines at 69th, Cambodia at 86th and Laos at 91st.
Considering this a way to avoid responsibility, reader Lai Quang Tan commented: "I think they have assessed correctly, Vietnam must overcome all its shortcomings to hope to catch up with other countries in the region.
To see if people's assessment is right or wrong, the National Tourism Administration should send someone to Ben Thanh market, An Dong market (HCMC)... to sit for about a week to see if there are many or few tourists.
Mr. Nguyen Van My (Lua Viet Tours) shares his perspective on this issue:
No alcohol, Malaysia still jumps to the top
According to the World Economic Forum's assessment, in addition to the positive aspects, Vietnam's poor indicators according to this assessment are listed as follows: Service infrastructure (ranked 80); Tourism openness (ranked 80); Health and hygiene (ranked 81); Environmental sustainability (ranked 93); Socio-economic impact brought about by the tourism industry (ranked 115)...
As a tourism professional, I noticed that Malaysia emerged as the leader in ASEAN in sustainable tourism in this ranking.
Malaysia is a country that also has restrictions on alcohol sales and no partying, but in 2023 it will lead ASEAN with 28 million visitors, and is the only country in Asia to welcome more visitors than before the pandemic in 2019 (28/27 million visitors).
I think through the way Malaysia does tourism, Vietnamese tourism workers will learn a lesson, which is connectivity. Connectivity here includes connectivity within the industry, local and regional connectivity, and connectivity with other industries.
Regarding the connection to develop tourism, someone has concluded that: "Vietnam tourism has many strengths, the strongest of which is that everyone does their own thing!"
Master of "luring" customers to empty their pockets and offer extremely cheap tours
To overcome the above weaknesses, no one else but each of us Vietnamese. We do not love our country, our homeland enough, how can we invite guests to come?
Besides beautifying one's image in the eyes of tourists, as mentioned above, doing tourism requires connections, because this is a comprehensive economic sector, it cannot be "strong alone".
In other countries, tourism is very well linked with the medical sector (health tourism); education (study abroad); sports (competitions, training, watching competitions); culture (filmmaking, film editing, events); trade (international fairs); agriculture (homestay festivals, OCOP fairs) ...
They combine modern media with word of mouth (talk to talk), providing excellent service so that "good news travels fast".
Returning to the decline in Vietnam's tourism ranking, according to the World Economic Forum's assessment, if next year Vietnam's tourism surpasses Singapore, an island nation 451 times smaller in area and 18 times smaller in population, it is still not good.
The problem is how to overcome Malaysia and stick close to Thailand - the master of the art of "luring" tourists to empty their pockets and with extremely cheap tour prices.
To do that, we must make a real "revolution" in the way we do tourism, have appropriate mechanisms and start with small things like: littering in the right place, not honking loudly on the street...
Recently, I was lucky enough to attend "Homestay Nite Malaysia 2024" in Thu Duc on the evening of May 26 and really admired the way Malaysia does tourism.
At that meeting, only more than 20 guests were selected but all the consuls general, tourism, education, health consuls, president of the Malaysia Homestay Association... were present.
It is known that Tourism Malaysia is under the Ministry of Tourism - Arts and Culture. Currently, this organization has 34 offices around the world. The embassies all have attachés (ambassadors) or consuls (consuls general) for tourism, attachés for various sectors.
And, when necessary, they gather easily, exchange very intimately and warmly like family.
Another thing worth learning is that in such meetings, they do not invite many people because it is costly (wasteful, ineffective). This is very different from Vietnam where everything is on a grand scale, but does not achieve the desired results.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bai-hoc-tu-du-lich-ben-vung-va-du-khach-vet-sach-tui-20240530112556386.htm
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