Challenges of tourism products

Life cycle is not long

On Facebook, VKStar Company shares images of tourists coming to see its Ao Dai show in Da Nang almost every day. It is good for the company because business activities have recovered, but it is sad for Hue tourism . This Ao Dai show should have been held in Hue City.

After many meetings, it was not until the dialogue between Hue tourism businesses and provincial leaders in early 2023 that we met Ms. Nguyen Lan Vy, General Director of VKStar, to find out why the program left Hue. Ms. Vy explained that the company had difficulty renting premises in Hue City. Many suitable locations could not be rented. After balancing, the company had to temporarily close operations in Hue and move the Ao Dai show to Da Nang .

Previously, the Ao Dai Show was organized effectively, connecting and bringing many international visitors to Hue. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, this cultural product served about 200,000 international visitors/year, mainly Korean and Thai visitors. If calculated, the number of international visitors served by this program reached 10% of the total number of international visitors to Hue in 2019 (about 2.1 million). That is a "huge" number for a tourism business.

Ms. Nguyen Lan Vy wishes: “I am a Hue native, always wanting to contribute to my hometown. Therefore, we aim to rebuild the show in Hue. I hope the leaders of the province and Hue city will pay attention and create conditions for businesses to rent premises to build a space to develop tourism products. The Ao Dai show is a dedicated tourism product of the business, creating jobs for more than 200 workers and students in Hue, as well as connecting and increasing the ability to attract international delegations to stay and experience other tourism services in Hue”.

That is just one of the typical products, proving its important value, but also had to temporarily stop operating after only a few years of operation (since 2017). In Hue, there are many new products, which are considered attractive and unique, but they also share the same fate, facing too many challenges in maintaining operations. The product "Afternoon tea on the Perfume River" was "coalitioned" by businesses to start operating in March 2022, but after only a few months, the service organized by the businesses was temporarily stopped. Currently, the service has been transferred to another unit to operate, but its appeal is no longer the same as before. Or the experience service at Dong Khuyet Dai (Imperial City), after only about a year of operation, it also had to close.

Ms. Nguyen Hoang Thuy Vy, Vice President of the Provincial Tourism Association, assessed that many new products have been launched, but most of them are trendy products with short life cycles, targeting ordinary customers. Products with cultural depth are not many, or if they are, they cannot be maintained.

Missing many things

To attract tourists, the most important thing is still the product. That role has been affirmed, but according to businesses, investing in tourism products and exploiting services in Hue faces many more challenges and risks than in other localities.

Hue tourism is lacking entertainment venues; art performance venues, cultural experiences of all sizes. Meanwhile, entertainment is an important product line, chosen by most customer markets. Seeing this, many businesses have researched and exploited it.

However, according to Mr. Vu Van Chuong, Vice President of the Tourism Association, investment in service exploitation in spaces in Hue faces many obstacles. There are no specific policies to attract investment in spaces. Spaces oriented to exploit tourism services are rarely announced. Along with that, there is no information on legal procedures, so the process of carrying out investment procedures and service exploitation is prolonged or difficult to implement.

Agreeing with this opinion, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thuan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dai Bang Tourism Joint Stock Company, analyzed that investment in tourism products is gradually changing. Investment may be small, but meticulous and complete services can attract customers. There is a feeling that the province is "underestimating" products with small investment capital; meanwhile, analyzing the development process of large tourism businesses today shows that they also started with small products, then gradually expanded their scale.

“There needs to be assessments of the role of each investor, for each specific product. Priority should be given to products that Hue is lacking. Among many solutions, information transparency needs to be improved. For example, how will Ru Cha be invested, what services, what environmental requirements… the information must be clear. Along with that, promote support to resolve problems. If the investment process lasts longer than expected by about 6 months, the project is considered a failure. For example, in Hue, investing in services in the summer must be completed by January or February, if it lasts a few more months, the summer tourist season will be over,” Mr. Thuan suggested.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, said that in order to remove difficulties for businesses in investing and developing products, the province is currently implementing a province-wide planning, associated with developing tourism products. In addition to cultural and heritage products, the province is interested in many other products, which are materialized through projects on spiritual tourism, waterfalls, health care tourism, etc.

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