Vietnam and other countries in the ASEAN region want to sustainably restore the green economy and they need a handshake to act together. There is a common strategy for all countries.

How to quickly and sustainably recover post-COVID-19 tourism is not just a story of Vietnam alone, because the pandemic darkness has covered the globe for the past two years and the closest are neighboring countries in the past two years in the area.

Therefore, the ASEAN countries have just had the 56th online roundtable of ASEAN National Tourism Agencies, to share how to attract more tourists to the region after the pandemic as well as focus on ensuring health and safety for tourists in the context of the emergence of many new strains. In particular, this is an opportunity for countries to agree on a common action plan for this new stage.

ASEAN ‘shake hands’ for common goals

In 2020 and 2021, due to the impact of COVID-19, the number of tourists to ASEAN decreased sharply. In 2020, ASEAN only welcomed nearly 28 million visitors (down 80.7% compared to 2019); total revenue from tourists reached about 43.1 billion USD (down 74.8% compared to 2019). In 2021, the tourism industry will be more heavily affected, and the number of international arrivals and total tourism revenue will decrease by 90.03% and 94.33% respectively compared to 2020.

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With these dramatic declines in numbers, ASEAN tourism officials agreed to strengthen coordination to revive the region’s green economy following the action plan approved earlier this year and coordinate efforts to improve the region’s green economy. related industry. The ultimate goal is to revive the tourism industry and restore visitor numbers to pre-pandemic levels.

Accordingly, the countries implementing the ASEAN tourism marketing strategy for the period 2021-2025 have been built with 3 pillars: Building a more attractive Southeast Asian tourism brand story; Focusing on a group of niche markets and audiences; More effective implementation of promotion and advertising activities.

It is known that this new phase of marketing strategy is adjusted based on forecast trends after COVID-19 and based on ASEAN’s financial capacity. The strategy was discussed at the levels of the Working Group, the Tourism Competition Commission, and the National Tourism Authority.

To realize the goal, ASEAN countries agree to develop a diverse range of tourism products, and marketing campaigns, improve tourism standards and connectivity, and apply a variety of digital systems to help customers and Travelers have easy access to information.

In addition, ASEAN authorities will work with dialogue partners and international organizations to enhance tourism activities, making travel more convenient for tourists.

Vietnam tourism strengthens cooperation

Joining the ASEAN community, Vietnam is currently the Vice Chairman of the ASEAN Comprehensive and Sustainable Tourism Development Committee and is chairing the project “Festival tourism products.” In this role, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu said that Vietnam is planning to organize a regional workshop and festival survey in 2023 with the theme “Festival tourism.” To promote the project to high efficiency, the Deputy Director General wishes to receive comments from ASEAN member states.

According to the leader of Vietnam’s tourism industry, to contribute to ASEAN’s comprehensive and sustainable tourism development, the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research is currently chairing the project “Building and implementing a Strategy to encourage tourism”. involvement of local communities and the private sector in tourism development.”

This strategy was approved by ASEAN Ministers at the 22nd ASEAN Tourism Ministers Meeting on the occasion of ATF 2019 (Ha Long) with a strategic implementation plan in Vietnam including an Initiative to increase the participation of the private sector in community tourism development;” strengthening community capacity through training courses, training and improving knowledge and skills to participate in tourism activities for the community in Vietnam; building community tourism products associated with ASEAN tourist souvenir production craft villages.

Deputy General Director Ha Van Sieu said that Vietnam will organize a workshop on “Initiatives to increase the participation of the private sector in community tourism development” in October 2022. The VNAT leader expressed his hope that the workshop will be directly attended by all ASEAN member states to share information, and enhance the participation and benefits of the community as well as the private sector in the region. tourism development.

Not only actively consulting and cooperating with countries in the ASEAN community, with dynamism, Vietnam is also strengthening cooperation with international organizations. In 2022, the Asia Pacific Tourism Association (PATA) cooperated with Vietnam to successfully implement two projects: “Resilience of tourist destinations” in Quang Nam province and “Resilience of tourism destinations” in Quang Nam province. Elephant Tourism” in Dak Lak province.

In addition, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) also supports practical techniques for Vietnam’s tourism (in planning, promoting, promoting, and organizing international events in Vietnam). As a result, in 2022, Vietnamese tourism will continuously participate in specialized online seminars of UNWTO; coordinating with the UNWTO Nara office (Japan) to prepare to implement activities to support sustainable destination governance. “These are certainly effective initiatives to support tourism recovery after COVID-19 and Vietnam is ready to continue taking the next steps of the project,” said Ha Van Sieu.

Source: Vietnam+