Businesses are constantly changing to meet new travel trends of tourists.

New trends require change

Recently, at a tourism event held in Hue City, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu shared many noteworthy information. In particular, information from the latest report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) indicated that international tourism is on the way to recovery and will reach nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, with many destinations having restored or even surpassed pre-pandemic arrivals and revenues. However, the Asia and Pacific region is lagging behind. From January to September this year, the region only recovered 62% of pre-pandemic levels due to the slower reopening of international tourism.

Vietnam is the first country in ASEAN to fully open its borders without any COVID-19-related restrictions since March 2022. Over the past two years, the tourism industry has received many favorable policies to accelerate the recovery process and support tourism businesses and workers. In the first 11 months of 2023, Vietnam welcomed 11.2 million international visitors, up 69% compared to the same period in 2019 and far exceeding the initial target of 8 million for the whole year. In Thua Thien Hue province alone, in the first 11 months of 2023, nearly 2.8 million visitors were welcomed, notably international visitors increased sharply, more than 942,000, up 370% over the same period last year. This is a remarkable result, demonstrating the efforts of all stakeholders to restore the tourism industry and contribute to the country's economic development as well as improve people's welfare.

However, according to Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu, one of the emerging trends in the tourism industry after the pandemic is the growing interest in sustainable tourism and tourism resilience. To recover and develop the tourism industry in this new era, it is necessary to be aware of and rethink tourism in a more sustainable direction, paying more attention to green growth, digital transformation, destination management and human resource development. In addition, it is also important to support and enhance the capacity of tourism businesses to become stronger and more resilient, because most tourism businesses are micro, small and medium-sized, very vulnerable to future crises.

Digital skills training for tourism businesses

Currently, along with other industries, digital transformation in tourism is also an important requirement. At the workshop "Digital skills training for green tourism businesses" (early December), Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, said that digital transformation is one of the important contents, bringing key factors for Vietnamese businesses in the context of increasingly deep international integration and increasingly fierce competition. Digital transformation, especially digital skills, is one of the top concerns of tourism and service businesses, thereby creating an environment for tourism and service businesses to share and connect to provide increasingly diverse, quality and effective services to tourists.

According to Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu, the digital skills training courses for green tourism businesses will address one of the biggest concerns in the tourism industry. In particular, the sharing of experienced international experts will share the necessary knowledge and practical skills to promote the application of digital skills, as well as guide tourism businesses on how to use digital solutions to improve competitiveness, innovation and flexibility.

Business representatives said that, in the face of new tourism trends, digital solutions for tourism businesses are very important, including methods to become digital marketing and social networks, search engines, online travel agents, digital transformation in tourism... Currently, the tourism industry has many solutions to implement digital transformation. Digital skills training content for tourism businesses needs to be deployed more regularly, suitable for destinations so that businesses can easily apply it in practice, especially digital skills and digital marketing promotion to increase the presence of businesses in the digital environment, expand opportunities to access and attract customers from the internet, and promote tourism.

Article and photos: HUU PHUC