Promoting Binh Thuan tourism destinations

With the meaning of managing and developing destinations to create a healthy tourism environment, build brand image, enhance attractiveness and competitiveness... The international conference was organized by the National Tourism Administration in collaboration with Traveloka in Hanoi, attracting the participation of domestic and international experts, tourism management departments of some provinces and cities. The conference contributed to promoting Binh Thuan as a great destination for tourists.

Destination management and development

The significance of destination management and development, the workshop focused on discussing the following contents: Promoting public-private cooperation; public-private cooperation in managing and developing tourist destinations; raising awareness, adding resources to tourist destinations in each locality as well as nationally.

Here, Honorary President of the Singapore Tourism Management Institute Wong Soon-hwa assessed Vietnam's tourism position as "the best in Southeast Asia" but destination management needs to be improved. According to Mr. Wong, Vietnam has a large land area and a large population (nearly 100 million), creating an abundant human resource to provide for the service - tourism industry. Vietnam is a safe destination thanks to its stable political situation, which foreign investors always prioritize when wanting to invest. However, currently Vietnam is still not the leading tourist attraction in the region, behind countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. In the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam welcomed 10 million international visitors while Thailand welcomed more than 21.5 million visitors. Therefore, for Vietnam's tourism industry to develop further, according to Mr. Wong, it is necessary to manage destinations well.

Mr. Albert, co-founder of Traveloka, a travel platform based in 6 Southeast Asian countries, defines “destination” as not only the names on the map but also the experiences that tourists and locals create together. For a country blessed with natural resources like Vietnam, destination management is extremely important. The guiding principle in managing a destination is sustainability, balancing the quality and quantity of tourists; developing tourism not only in the present but also for the future…

Service must be professional

Mr. Dinh Ngoc Duc, Head of the International Relations Department of the National Tourism Administration, commented that if a destination wants to be successful, the local government needs to "put the tourist experience first". The experience here is to provide tourists with professional services, competitive prices, and when customers spend money, they must receive something commensurate, a clean and beautiful environment, friendly and civilized people, a safe destination and sustainable development. In addition, tour products must be unique, with convenient procedures such as simple entry, and convenient transportation to tourist attractions.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Department of Tourism Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, many old destinations are competing with new destinations. Therefore, destinations that want to develop need to be highly adaptable. Local authorities need to take measures to enhance local people's pride in the destination, build unique products that are not "incompatible" with other places to attract both domestic and international tourists. Tourism experts believe that when Vietnam can do things like manage destinations well, prioritize the experience of tourists at destinations, the tourism industry will develop rapidly...

In addition to the presentations, the workshop also discussed “roundtable” approaches to establishing better public-private partnerships in destination management in Vietnam in general, and in the country’s major tourism centers in particular. The workshop also held a ceremony to announce publications promoting Binh Thuan and Quang Ninh tourism destinations supported by Traveloka.

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