Hue has just gained another plus point when La Vela Hue Hotel was recognized as 5 stars. Photo: BAO PHUOC
La Vela Hue Hotel (Lot 17, Road 22, Southeast Thuy An Urban Area, Thuy Duong Ward, Huong Thuy Town) is the 8th accommodation facility in Thua Thien Hue Province to be recognized as meeting this standard. Other 5-star hotels include: Imperial at 8 Hung Vuong, Pilgrimage Village Resort Hotel (130 Minh Mang), Azerai La Residence (5 Le Loi), Indochine Palace (105A Hung Vuong), Laguna Lang Co Resort Hotel (Cu Du Village, Loc Vinh, Phu Loc District), Silk Path (2 Le Loi), Melia Vinpearl Hue (50A Hung Vuong). This is an achievement, marking the efforts of the local government and the tourism industry in calling for and attracting investment in the tourism sector, including the system of high-class hotels and resorts to upgrade the tourism infrastructure which has been showing signs of overload, not commensurate with the potential and development of a key economic sector. In fact, service infrastructure is one of the issues that makes Hue tourism in particular and Vietnam in general lose serious points in the eyes of tourists, especially international tourists. The evidence is that recently, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Vietnam ranked only 59th out of 119 destinations in terms of the Tourism Development Index (TTDI), down 7 places compared to 2022. The total score Vietnam achieved was 3.96/7, down 0.14% compared to the total score of 4.1/8 in 2022. In the ASEAN bloc, Vietnam ranked only above the Philippines (ranked 69), Cambodia (ranked 86) and Laos (ranked 91). TTDI is an upgrade of the WEF's Tourism Competitiveness Index published every two years, based on the new context after the COVID-19 pandemic. The index is ranked based on 5 main groups, with 17 areas to score. The 2024 ranking was conducted by WEF with 119 countries and territories in 2023. In this ranking, the lowest score of Vietnam's tourism industry in 2023 is service infrastructure (2.2 points, ranked 80) and socio-economic impact of the tourism industry (2.95 points, ranked 115). While the remaining indicators are all highly rated such as: Competitive price (5.68/7 points, ranked 16), security and safety (reached 6.19 points, ranked 23). The index belongs to the group of tourism and travel resource indexes of Vietnam which is highly appreciated, with indexes on natural resources (ranked 26th), cultural resources (ranked 28th), resources other than entertainment - resort (ranked 38th)... Tourism service infrastructure, including aviation, ground services, ports and tourism services such as hotels or car rentals... are factors that play a very important role in the competitiveness of the tourism industry of a locality or country. The fact that our tourism service infrastructure in 2023 was only scored 2.2 points, ranked 80th in the world, reflects an alarming reality. In recent years, the tourism infrastructure of Hue in particular and Vietnam in general has developed with the appearance of many large-scale projects to serve tourists across the country. However, that is still not enough to erase the reality, every time the tourist season comes, familiar images recur: overloaded airlines, jammed roads, and severely lacking seaports to serve tourists. Next is the number of hotels and standard accommodation facilities in localities that is growing slowly, not commensurate with the growth in tourists. Take Hue for example, currently in the province there are more than 853 accommodation facilities, with 13,176 rooms and 21,240 beds. This number is still very modest compared to the neighboring locality of Da Nang, which has an annual number of visitors nearly equivalent to about 1,285 tourist accommodation facilities, with nearly 47,000 rooms. Once the service infrastructure does not meet the demand, the consequence is that the number of visitors will not be as expected. And of course, the socio-economic impact index of the tourism industry, that is, the impact, job creation, and contribution of the tourism industry to the gross domestic product and each specific locality will not be high - as shown in the latest TTDI rankings. La Vela Hue is the 8th accommodation facility in Hue to be recognized as 5 stars, which is good news. But that is not enough. For tourism to truly be the "spearhead", the locality still needs to have more open and attractive policies to call for and attract more investment in tourism infrastructure!
HOANG VAN MINH