The problem of 'retention'?

(Baonghean) - After attracting customers, the problem of retaining customers is still waiting for those working in Nghe An tourism to find the answer.

-Yesterday, my parents took my daughter Bim out to celebrate Children's Day. When I came home that night, I asked her:

- Did you have fun?

- It's fun, but we can only play for a short while and then we have to go home.

- You see the three of us go out from early morning until late at night, going out all day and still think it's not enough?

- No, the road was so crowded that we couldn't get to the park until noon. In the afternoon, Bim's father told us to go home early so we wouldn't have to wait as long as in the morning...

I was surprised and asked Bim’s father, and it was true that there was a traffic jam. This surprised me a bit because Nghe An has never had traffic jams outside the city (except when there was a serious accident). However, I was even more surprised when Bim’s father said: “I have never been in a traffic jam like this when I went out in the province, I am glad!”. I was a bit surprised, but I did not find it difficult to understand.

Nghe An is a large province with diverse terrain and culture. It has long been considered to have great tourism potential with many natural and man-made resources, however, Nghe An has not yet "turned on" to become a bright spot on the Vietnamese tourism map. When talking about Nghe An, visitors from other provinces often think of Cua Lo and Uncle Ho's hometown. Recently, there have been a series of other options such as Hoang Muoi temple, Thai ethnic village tourism in the western districts of Nghe An, sunflower fields, etc. Meanwhile, visitors from within the province often have the habit of going to neighboring provinces such as Ha Tinh, Quang Binh - a rather unfortunate thing while there are places within the province that they have never set foot on.

Tourists come to the sunflower field. Photo: Internet

Traffic jams due to the large number of tourists in Nghe An can therefore make those interested in tourism in the province feel happy, because it is a positive sign showing that there have been certain changes in an economic sector with potential but has not been effectively exploited for a long time. On the other hand, this shows that very soon, Nghe An tourism will face traffic problems. This will be a problem in many aspects: hard infrastructure, services and even people's behavioral culture. In fact, the shortcomings in services and traffic culture have already appeared, it is no longer a matter of predicting the future.

I will take Bim’s family trip as an example. In countries with strong tourism development in the region such as Thailand or Singapore, people rarely travel to tourist destinations far from the city center by private car but often use public transport such as trains and buses. The quality of public transport services is very good, the vehicles are clean and new, the seats are arranged airy, passengers sit properly and talk softly, there is no jostling or noise. If compared to our bus routes, it is a world of difference, to the point that every time we see a bus on the road, our first reflex is to… avoid it immediately to avoid “unexpected trouble”.

Our traffic culture is also quite limited. Motorcyclists brazenly drive into the car lane, while car drivers are ready to speed up and splash water on motorcyclists whenever it rains. Sometimes, people walking next to buses are even “rewarded” with a bag of trash that falls right on them… These are just a few of the many examples of the uncivilized behavior of traffic participants in Nghe An in particular and the whole country in general.

Tourism is a special economic sector. First of all, it is considered a smokeless industry, but after all, it is a form of service. And when it comes to services, human feelings are important. If visitors' impressions of a destination are scattered by frustration, fatigue and the feeling of waiting for too long a travel time, will they want to come back next time? After attracting visitors, the problem of retaining visitors is still waiting for those working in Nghe An tourism to find the answer.

Hai Trieu