Organizing many tourism events but 'no tourists, only government agency representatives'

Tourism products associated with events and festivals are being deployed by many localities as a way to attract domestic and foreign tourists. However, many events are deserted by tourists.

Attracting international tourists from events and festivals is the goal of Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: QUANG DINH

At the seminar "Enhancing quality tourism products from events and festivals" held on February 20 in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Vu The Binh - Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association - said that to enhance tourism products from events and festivals, the first thing policy makers must do is consider events as the main "ingredient" to create attractive and unique tourism products and must continuously research and recreate them.

Tourist event but no tourists!

Recently, every province has festivals, even at the district level, and everyone says they are events for tourism.

"However, at many events today, I don't see tourists, I only see leaders and representatives of state agencies. But we call them tourism events, which is a bit sad. The tourism element should be the most important in those festivals, the interesting, unique things... need to be introduced to tourists," Mr. Vu The Binh frankly said.

Mr. Vu The Binh suggested: We need to focus on exploiting the unique cultural and historical values of each locality to create events and festivals that attract tourists. Because what tourists want to see most in festivals and events is the local cultural and historical values.

If it had really done well, Vietnamese tourism could have welcomed 30 million international visitors, not just 17.5 million like last year.

Ms. Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang - Deputy General Director of Vietravel - also pointed out the limitations in the process of developing tourism products from events and festivals.

In recent times, most tourism businesses have received annual event calendars. However, we have not yet been able to build tours that accompany events, as many countries in the region have done very successfully.

"It is necessary to position iconic products. For example, the Ao Dai Festival, the Bread Festival, the International Tourism Festival... how do we prioritize? Once positioned, designing communication campaigns before, during and after the event is very important to attract tourists, make them stay longer and use more services," Ms. Hoang commented.

Welcoming international guests but domestic guests are also very important

Ms. Nguyen Thi Khanh, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, also admitted that the difficulty in organizing festivals and events today is maintaining the regularity to provide specific information to tourists and travel agencies. Ho Chi Minh City has many events, but deciding to organize them requires both procedures and advertising costs.

In his role as a state manager, Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, shared about the city’s tourism product development orientations. According to him, tourism products need to be clearly classified according to customer groups, including event tourism, cultural and historical tourism, and activities associated with local identity.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is investing more in cultural events to help tourists better understand the historical characteristics and national identity. Many cultural and historical events have been translated into many different languages, to facilitate international visitors.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City is also considering applying online guidance to improve customer experience.

"HCMC is aiming for tourism revenue of VND260,000 billion this year. Maintaining and developing annual events such as Tourism Festival, marathons, and music events are considered important strategies to increase the number of visitors, not overlooking the role of domestic visitors," Mr. Hoa affirmed.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/to-chuc-nhieu-su-kien-du-lich-nhung-khong-thay-du-khach-chi-thay-dai-dien-co-quan-nha-nuoc-20250220162831816.htm