Advice to 'set sail', bringing Vietnam's river tourism economy to the open sea

The emotions from the contest "Stories of the Rivers" urged experts and researchers to sit down and contribute ideas to "set sail" to bring Vietnam's river tourism economy to the open sea.

Great opportunity

Within the framework of the award ceremony of the contest "Stories of the Rivers" , VietNamNet newspaper organized a discussion with the theme of Sailing . The discussion opened with the desire to connect the contributions of experts, researchers, river lovers,... for the journey of developing Vietnam's river economy and marine economy. The discussion had the participation of 4 speakers including: Mr. Tran Viet Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Binh Dinh F1 Joint Stock Company; Mr. Dang Bao Hieu, Chairman of Focus Travel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ana Marina Nha Trang; Mr. Po Tran, Chairman of the East Saigon chapter of the JCI Global Young Leaders Federation and journalist Hoang Tu Giang, VietNamNet newspaper.

Experts and speakers attending the seminar (from right to left) include: Mr. Po Tran, Mr. Dang Bao Hieu, Mr. Tran Viet Anh and journalist Hoang Tu Giang. Photo: Hoa Pham

At the seminar, Mr. Dang Bao Hieu, Chairman of Focus Travel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ana Marina Nha Trang affirmed that he always has a desire to make rivers and seas bring legitimate benefits to businesses, communities and people. As a business operating in tourism, Mr. Hieu spends a lot of time researching the market and international river tourism habits. During the research process, he discovered that Vietnam is missing a huge opportunity in river tourism. Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Po Tran shared that in the South, 60% of the tourism products of the company he manages come from the Mekong River. Every month, his river tourism products attract 500 - 800 foreign visitors. However, he still has concerns in this field that is considered to have a lot of potential. One of them is receiving feedback from tourists about the places they are taken to having a lot of waste, the destinations do not have special symbols or marks for tourists to remember, promote, introduce, etc. Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Viet Anh is concerned about the lack of good cooperation between domestic enterprises, especially those in the same industry. According to him, enterprises still operate in a way that each does their own thing and competes with each other on price. This makes the river tourism industry difficult and difficult to break through. Commenting on the future and development orientation of the river economy in Vietnam, journalist Hoang Tu Giang said that our country has many rivers. However, in terms of GDP produced per cubic meter of water, Vietnamese people are the worst in the world .

Experts say that in order to set sail and bring the river and sea economy to the open sea, each of us needs to do it with a deep love for rivers and seas.

Mr. Giang cited evidence showing that for each cubic meter of water, Vietnamese people only generate 2 USD while foreigners generate up to 20 USD. Journalist Hoang Tu Giang commented: “We are rich in water resources. However, we do not know how to exploit them properly. Moreover, Vietnamese people abuse and take advantage of rivers and do not consider sustainable development”. Referring to the story of sustainable development, journalist Hoang Tu Giang said that the most important thing is the issue of institutions and planning. According to him, it is necessary to create mechanisms and policies for businesses to exploit rivers better in terms of tourism . Advice to set sail According to Mr. Dang Bao Hieu, if pursuing the issue of sustainable development of river tourism, it is necessary to identify 5 elements. First, the State plays an important role, followed by business people. The remaining elements include investors, local people and people working in communications. He emphasized: “The harmonious and tight combination of the above elements will create a complete picture of sustainable development. However, I also think that we need to add a keyword to this process. That is love for rivers, love for work. That love will make us have a greater desire to set sail and go out to sea.” Agreeing with Mr. Hieu, Mr. Po Tran said that after having love and institutions, tourism workers need to find a “captain, find a compass” so that the river tourism ship goes in the right direction and develops sustainably.

Award ceremony of the contest "Stories of the Rivers". Photo: Nguyen Hue

Attending the seminar, Dr. Duong Duc Minh, Vice Chairman of the Institute Council and Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Tourism Economic Development Research, contributed the keyword convergence threshold to the research process, promoting the development of river tourism. He said: “The Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Tourism Economic Development Research has begun researching the convergence threshold of rivers since 2007. During the research process, the institute found that riverside communities are almost a disadvantaged community. They always crave access to the outside world and tourism. This is an opportunity for investors and businesses to exploit by shortening the distance between riverside communities and the outside world. With this view of the convergence threshold, the Institute has accompanied the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism to launch a community tourism model in Thieng Lieng. And, this is one of the products that makes tourists near and far remember. The second view on the convergence threshold, in my opinion, is to avoid diversifying rivers. Because there are very beautiful and sparkling rivers, but there are also rivers that have their own risks and challenges. And in that context, we need to have a diverse approach to be able to solve it in the best way”. Also attending the discussion, as a member of the Tourism Advisory Council, Dr. Luong Hoai Nam, General Director of Bamboo Airways, affirmed that there are opportunities to help the river tourism industry develop further, generating more benefits for localities and communities around the rivers. To realize these opportunities, he said that all localities must invest more in intelligence, internal resources, finance, mechanisms, etc. He suggested that cities increase investment in planning beautiful landscapes on both sides of the river. This will help increase river tourism products, bringing in many benefits.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism spoke and contributed ideas at the discussion. Photo: Nguyen Hue

Listening to the discussions of experts and speakers at the seminar, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa affirmed that “sailing” is an open keyword for everyone to think and come up with many ideas. Sharing at the seminar, Ms. Anh Hoa said: “The honoring and evaluation of river resources in our country has been recognized. However, to properly exploit and reach the right level of this resource, further discussion is needed. Ho Chi Minh City is also in this general context. Ho Chi Minh City has a very clear orientation that it must exploit the characteristics of a river-based and sea-oriented urban area. One of the aspirations of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism is to make river tourism one of the city's typical products in the future. I also agree with the keyword “sustainability”. If we have the same vision for sustainability, all our actions will go in the same direction”. After about 1 hour of lively discussion, the seminar with the theme of Sailing ended with solutions towards developing Vietnam's river and sea economy. Experts and speakers all agreed that in order to set sail and bring the river and sea economy to the open sea, each of us needs to do it with a deep love for rivers and seas. In addition, experts said that it is necessary to find a captain, a compass for the river cruise ship to go in the right direction. More importantly, speakers said that there should be institutions and regulations to carry out sailing and going offshore in a sustainable manner.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/hien-ke-de-giong-buom-dua-kinh-te-du-lich-duong-song-viet-nam-ra-bien-lon-2325578.html