Quang Tri 1.jpg
Foreign tourists visit Ta Con Airport relic, Huong Hoa district - Photo: BAO BINH

Implementing digital transformation in tourism development, meeting the requirements set forth in the new situation, recently, the Department of Science and Technology has presided over and coordinated with the Center for Conservation of Monuments and Provincial Museums and a number of functional units to conduct many studies such as: "Applying GIS technology to build an information system for historical and cultural relics and scenic spots of Quang Tri province", "Building an information system for Quang Tri Ancient Citadel relics and places commemorating the 81-day and night event in 1972 using GIS and 3D technology", "Researching and building a digital database on the special national historical relic of Quang Tri Ancient Citadel and places commemorating the 81-day and night event in 1972, contributing to supporting the development of Quang Tri tourism"... to contribute to building a digital bank of historical, cultural relics and scenic spots of the province.

Notably, the topic "Quang Tri cultural heritage digital banking solution supporting smart tourism " of the Department of Science and Technology of Quang Tri province was honored as 1 of 7 units and solutions in category 3: Excellent digital transformation state agencies nationwide at the Vietnam Digital Transformation Awards Ceremony - Vietnam Digital Awards and won the third prize in the category of initiatives and products with foreign information value of the 9th National Award on foreign information - 2023.

With more than 15 years of experience in the tourism industry, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, in Ward 2, Quang Tri town, currently a tour guide for a travel company in Da Nang , shared: “Currently, with just a smartphone, through the application “Quang Tri Cultural Heritage”, tourists are fully equipped with useful information to visit many famous historical and cultural sites in Quang Tri. In addition to the information received from tour guides, tourists can conveniently learn more about local cultural and historical sites through these applications.”

According to the report of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the second quarter of 2024, the total number of tourists to the province is estimated at 889,570 (up 21.2% over the same period last year), of which international visitors are estimated at 69,270 and domestic visitors are estimated at 830,300. In particular, in July 2024, the total number of tourists is estimated at 712,600, of which international visitors are estimated at 30,570 and domestic visitors are estimated at 682,030. Social revenue is estimated at 577 billion VND, of which specialized revenue is estimated at 163 billion VND.

Besides the achieved results, the application of digital transformation in tourism development still faces many difficulties and challenges related to human resources, infrastructure... for implementation.

Discussing digital transformation at the presentation with the theme “Quang Tri: Digital transformation to transform and reach out to the world”, Professor Ha Ton Vinh, Director of the Leadership Training Program at California Miramar University (USA), Chairman and General Director of Stellar Management Education, Training and Management Consulting Group, said that Quang Tri province needs to take tourism as the “locomotive” to carry out digital transformation.

According to the professor, social networks play an important role in planning tourism, especially in Vietnam, with up to 73% of Vietnamese tourists checking reviews on social networks before booking travel tickets and hotels. Therefore, Quang Tri needs to promote the development of mobile phone applications, tourism promotion websites, develop tourism promotion communications on social networks, provide more popular information about tourist destinations in English, apply AI technology, automation, virtual tourism with digital applications...

Prioritizing resources for digital transformation in the tourism sector, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee recently approved a detailed budget outline for the project to build a smart tourism portal, digitize tourism products using virtual reality technology, digitize and build a comprehensive tourism database.

The project's goal is to digitally transform the tourism sector with a smart tourism portal and tourism industry database that fully meets the usage requirements of businesses, tourists and state management agencies on tourism activities.

The project also develops mobile applications for tourists at key tourist destinations. Digitize and build a comprehensive tourism database, a digital map system of data related to tourism objects managed by the province and integrate with the tourism portal and smart tourism applications on mobile devices...

The completed project contributes to further enhancing the application of information technology and digital transformation in the tourism sector to effectively manage and exploit data, optimize the quality of experience for tourists. Thereby enhancing the value of destinations, increasing the effectiveness of promoting and introducing tourism in Quang Tri province.

According to AQUARIUS (Quang Tri Newspaper)