Lao Cai builds smart tourism to break through

Lao Cai is striving to modernize its tourism industry with the aim of turning its geographical, cultural and natural advantages into sustainable competitive advantages. Not only developing traditional tourism infrastructure, the province is also building a smart tourism ecosystem to promote growth, improve service quality and expand international markets.

Lao Cai highlands in the rice ripening season.

Before the province's merger, the two portals svhttdl.yenbai.gov.vn and svhttdl.laocai.gov.vn updated data of hundreds of accommodation establishments, restaurants and tourist attractions, connecting with other platforms to serve the management and implementation of tasks.

The laocaitourism.vn platform is considered one of the pioneering applications, providing official and fast information sources, while integrating many smart utilities: digital tourism maps, virtual tour guides, accommodation - food - travel service lookup, 3D virtual tours, schedule design, comparison, booking and online payment.

The connection between channels - web portal, social network (Lao Cai Tourism fanpage, Lao Cai Tourism YouTube) and mobile application "Lao Cai Tourism" - helps diversify customer access channels, increase interaction and reduce the distance between tourists and local products.

Units have strongly applied 360-degree images, flycam, VR 360 technology and 3D tours to create vivid online experiences. Typically, VR 360 experience booths were installed in central areas and events at Hao Gia Walking Street during the April 30 holiday season, helping viewers "go ahead" to destinations.

Mr. Ha Van Minh - Minh Tan 4 group, Yen Bai ward, after experiencing it, shared: "The 3D images are very vivid, giving the feeling of being directly at that location. I think virtual reality technology will contribute significantly to stimulating tourists' travel needs."

Visitors can experience destinations from virtual reality technology.

Along with that, the pilot model "Sa Pa Tour" has become a typical example of a platform to support businesses and service establishments to digitize processes: electronic vouchers, electronic tickets, payment codes updated directly from the establishment owner, and an optimized management interface for accommodation and culinary establishments.

In Nghia Lo and Bac Ha, smart solutions are used to promote heritage, traditional markets and memorial sites - creating more digital touchpoints for tourists wanting to learn about local culture.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy (a tourist from Hanoi) said: "Through the images of landscapes, festivals, cultural activities... shown on the LED screen, we had new and interesting experiences in Muong Lo".

In addition, the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of the province has focused on creating a smart tourism product ecosystem through cooperation with the Asian Development Bank to design and print 5,000 business cards with QR codes containing sample tours, photo books, OCOP product handbooks...; 60 sample tourism programs in Vietnamese - English; 62,000 brochures have been prepared to support multilingual promotion, serving international visitors.

Cute chipi models carrying QR codes for tourist information were recently introduced by the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of the province.

In addition, the province is promoting digitalization, bringing traditional products such as destination tourism, indigenous cultural experiences, cuisine, resorts and OCOP products to e-commerce platforms (Booking, Traveloka), and integrating with Google My Business, Maps, and Search. The digital advantage helps small businesses and community businesses access large markets at reasonable costs, creating opportunities to increase revenue and enhance regional brands.

To successfully build a smart tourism ecosystem, the province focuses on promoting communication on social platforms, bringing about clear results. Currently, the YouTube channel "Lao Cai Tourism" has reached more than 1.2 million views, the fanpage has more than 14,500 followers, and tiktok has reached more than 131,000 views. Taking advantage of digital platforms has contributed to bringing Sa Pa into the rankings of attractive destinations; destinations such as Mu Cang Chai terraced fields, Khau Pha, Y Ty... are known to domestic and foreign tourists.

Identifying that one of the factors determining the success of digital transformation is people, Lao Cai tourism industry has organized training courses for more than 600 managers, workers and businesses. The content includes using statistical software (thongke.tourism.vn), tourism business administration, knowledge of applying 4.0 technology and digital skills for homestay communities at key locations such as Sa Pa, Mu Cang Chai, Bac Ha.

Recently, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the province has launched a breakthrough initiative "Building a digital tourism ecosystem to promote the digital economy in Lao Cai province". The ecosystem is formed based on multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual connections, with the composition of 4 systems, in which: taking green and sustainable orientation as a compass, tourists as the center, cultural identity as the foundation; the system of natural and cultural resources (real and virtual sources) as a warehouse for exploiting authentic data; the set of digital products and tools is the core highlight...

Bilingual digital travel library helps visitors easily choose their destination.

For the product group for state management, the Lao Cai Tourism Digital Data Library will be built; the book series "Lao Cai - Journey of discovery and experience" includes many volumes with over 300 travel stories.

For the product group supporting businesses, people, and tourists, Mogiverse application will be built to help create tours, VR360 photos on phones integrated on Google Map; friendly AI tour guide robot; digital tourism data platform. In addition, digital technology will be integrated with preserving the cultural identity of Lao Cai's ethnic groups, thereby creating changes in tourists' access to tourism information; saving communication costs for businesses, promoting the digital economy.

The synchronous implementation of digital transformation solutions for tourism is not only urgent, but also a long-term strategy, aiming to turn Lao Cai into a smart, modern, and unique tourist destination.

Mr. Nong Viet Yen - Director of Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism

With breakthrough steps, the province's culture, sports and tourism sector is gradually building a successful smart tourism ecosystem, not only making Lao Cai an attractive destination for domestic and foreign tourists, but also affirming its position on the international tourism map.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/lao-cai-xay-dung-du-lich-thong-minh-de-but-pha-post885357.html