There is a policy to 'create momentum' for tourism businesses.

(Baonghean) - Resolution 08/NQ-TW dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo sets the goal that by 2020, the tourism industry will basically become a spearhead economic sector, contributing over 10% of GDP; striving for tourism to truly be a spearhead economic sector by 2030.

Nghe An businesses introduce tourism products at tourism fairs. Photo: Vuong Bang

Among the 8 tasks and solutions set forth in the resolution, there is a solution to strengthen tourism promotion. With the role of the state promoting destinations and businesses promoting products, tourism promotion has been improved and innovated in terms of scale, methods, forms, and content and has achieved certain results.

Every year, Nghe An enterprises participate in 3-5 domestic tourism fairs and exhibitions, and organize and participate in 2-3 fairs and exhibitions abroad. However, the scale and frequency of participation are still limited, the market for promotion and advertising is still narrow, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City domestically, and mainly in Thailand abroad.

Tourism businesses in Nghe An have only coordinated to participate in some domestic tourism fairs such as: Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, Hanoi Tourism Fair. The reason is that tourism businesses in the province are small in scale, have low competitiveness, limited awareness of the role of advertising and promotion activities in business activities, and do not have specialized staff in market and marketing; on the other hand, some large hotels participate in fairs and exhibitions with the Group and General Corporation systems such as the Muong Thanh hotel system in Nghe An, the Saigon - Kim Lien hotel system.

Apart from the Muong Thanh and Saigon - Kim Lien hotel systems, up to now, no Nghe An enterprise has proactively participated in tourism fairs and exhibitions organized by the General Department of Tourism and the Tourism Association domestically, especially abroad. This has led to small-scale promotional activities, limited promotion space, and low linkage between the public and private sectors in promotion, thus not promoting tourism development in the province.

According to statistics from the Nghe An Department of Tourism, as of April 1, 2017, the number of travel companies has increased to 48, including 18 international travel companies and 30 domestic travel companies. Previously, as of August 3, 2015, Nghe An had only 31 travel companies, including 18 domestic travel companies and 13 international travel companies. Thus, in the past year, the number of travel companies has increased rapidly, especially in the first quarter of 2017. However, the business situation of travel companies is still facing many difficulties, revenue and competitiveness compared to other provinces are still low. The development of businesses is still low compared to the potential and advantages of the locality.

Meanwhile, there are many important legal bases from which to develop support policies for businesses such as Resolution No. 08/NQ-TW dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector; Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016 of the Government on supporting and developing businesses until 2020...

In practice, in addition to the central agencies that have implemented the measures, some localities have issued decisions to support tourism businesses such as: Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 28/2016/QD-UBND dated May 13, 2016, or in Lam Dong and Dong Thap provinces, there are regulations to support businesses participating in investment, trade and tourism promotion...; or in Nghe An, there are currently regulations to support businesses in the field of investment and trade... However, up to now, there have been no specific regulations to support tourism businesses in participating in domestic and foreign tourism promotion booths.

Regarding the support content, each enterprise needs to be supported with a maximum of 2 times of funding to participate in domestic fairs and exhibitions and 1 time to participate in foreign fairs and exhibitions. For example, when participating in the province's joint booth at domestic fairs and exhibitions, it needs to be supported with 50% of travel and business expenses, but not exceeding 2,500,000 VND per person for 1 participating unit and when participating in foreign fairs and exhibitions, it is supported with 1 round-trip economy class air ticket for 1 participating unit...

Tourists return to the sunflower field in Nghia Dan

In short, to create conditions for tourism businesses in the province to promote tourism brands, find customers, expand domestic and foreign markets, improve competitiveness, gradually expand scale, and contribute to promoting the development of the provincial tourism industry, it is necessary to develop and promulgate support policies for tourism businesses in Nghe An province to participate in domestic and foreign tourism fairs and exhibitions.

Wang Bang