Need to invest in facilities to accommodate large conferences

(Baonghean.vn) In October 2011, the North Central Region Investment Promotion Conference was held in our province. This was a national conference, attracting more than 1,000 delegates, including nearly 20 embassies and international organizations, and more than 100 domestic and foreign enterprises. To choose a venue for this regional conference, currently in our province there is no hotel with a meeting room capable of accommodating over 1,000 delegates and finally, the venue was the Provincial Labor Culture House. However, due to the large number of guests, many delegates had to stand outside the Conference hallway.

This is a typical example that the Nghe An tourism industry should consider, because this is not the first time this situation has occurred at investment promotion conferences. When Vinh is a type 1 city, one of 6 provinces in the North Central region, with many potentials and advantages, it is inevitable that we organize national and international conferences. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung - Head of Tourism Department - Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: Currently, the province has 497 hotels and motels with 11,258 rooms, suites, 21,610 beds.

However, the hotels are still mainly small conference rooms, which can only accommodate 200 - 300 seats. Giao Te Hotel is one of the 2-star hotels with 2 large conference rooms with a capacity of 700 seats, in addition to a hall with about 180 seats. This is the only hotel in the province with a large conference room that can accommodate 500 guests or more. Currently, no hotel dares to invest in a large conference room with a capacity of 800 - 1,000 seats.

Since the hotel opened the Conference Center, it has been operating at full capacity, all major conferences and seminars of the province, the region, and the country have chosen the Giao Te Conference Center as the venue for live broadcasting, such as: Conference to summarize 30 years of the Sen Village Singing Festival; Conference of the Cultural Village Festival of Typical Cultural Families of the whole province; Conference of the Cultural Center of the North Central provinces...

Answering the question "Why don't hotels invest in large conference rooms to be able to organize regional conferences", Mr. Vo An Huy - Deputy Director of Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel said: Since December 2011, Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel has been upgraded to 4-star. The conference room on the first floor alone can accommodate 200 guests. To improve service quality, in the second quarter of 2012, the hotel will invest in building a 500-seat multi-purpose conference room, with an estimated cost of 10 billion VND.

For Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel, it is very difficult to build a large conference room to accommodate regional and international conferences because the hotel space does not allow it. Expansion must also be consistent with the hotel's architectural space.

Furthermore, large conferences such as the recent Investment Promotion Conference rarely take place in the province, but are mainly conferences and seminars with over 300 guests. When it comes to business, if there is little demand, businesses will certainly not invest.

I think it is time for businesses and hotels in the province to invest in building large conference and seminar rooms of regional scale. Because reality has proven that beautiful hotels with modern and luxurious conference rooms are always the first choice. And the important thing is that when our tourism industry has modern facilities and equipment that can serve large conferences of national and international scale, then it will have the attraction, become an attractive destination not only for tourists but also for conferences and seminars - this is also a positive direction that needs to be exploited by Nghe An tourism industry.

Thanh Thuy