To make the role of the Tourism Association truly effective

(Baonghean) -The tourism association acts as a bridge between tourism businesses and management levels, and is also a common home for tourism businesses, aiming for the common goal of sustainable growth, which also means increasing professionalism and maintaining the brand in the market.

Looking at the reality and requirements mentioned above, Nghe An Tourism Association still has many limitations. After more than 6 years of establishment, the Association has only 56 members (44 accommodation establishments, 10 travel centers, 2 tourism vocational schools). While the whole province has over 500 tourism businesses which are accommodation establishments and hundreds of units related to tourism activities such as museums, historical - cultural relic sites, train stations, airports... the number of current members is too small. In terms of scope and type of participation, the Tourism Association is also very limited, the scope is mainly in Vinh City and Cua Lo Town, mainly accommodation establishments of 2 stars or higher. Passenger transport businesses, restaurants, museums, relic sites, golf courses, advertising businesses... participate in the Tourism Association.

Explaining the reason why many tourism businesses are not "enthusiastic" about joining the Tourism Association, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Vice President of the Tourism Association said that the propaganda has been weak for a long time, the mobilization and calling for new members is not strong and not regular. On the other hand, the awareness of tourism businesses about the role and position of the Tourism Association is still limited, only looking at the immediate benefits but not seeing the long-term benefits. Talking to us about the immediate and long-term benefits of joining the Tourism Association, Mr. Le Van Thanh - Director of the Friendship Travel Center - one of the members who joined the Tourism Association from the beginning said: "Although we have to pay annual membership fees, in return, we get many great benefits such as market information, training to improve the qualifications of employees... and more importantly, improving the reputation and position of our business in the market". Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh, owner of a restaurant on the east side of Binh Minh Street, Cua Lo Town, is hesitant about joining the Tourism Association and expressed: "We are really confused about what benefits we will get from joining the Tourism Association, while business is increasingly difficult. If joining the Tourism Association has many benefits, protects the rights and supports small and medium-sized tourism businesses, then restaurants like us are willing to join."

From the reality, along with promoting propaganda to raise awareness of the role and position of the Tourism Association in a more extensive way to develop new members, in the coming time, the Association needs to establish more branches by type and region such as Vinh City hotel branch, district hotel branch, and in the future there will be more branches of passenger transport enterprises, restaurant branches, museums and relic sites branches... (currently, only Cua Lo tourism branch and travel agency branch have been established). At the same time, two major groups of solutions are proposed: strengthening tourism promotion and promotion and strengthening training and fostering human resources for tourism enterprises, such as coordinating more closely with relevant sectors to organize and participate in many domestic and foreign tourism events; coordinating with the Tourism Associations of Laos and Thailand to build tourism products; surveying and introducing new tourist routes and destinations. In particular, every year, there will be an organization to honor typical tourism businesses that are members of the Tourism Association.

With a series of practical solutions mentioned above, we believe that the role of Nghe An Tourism Association will be enhanced in the coming time. However, how effectively it is implemented depends on the sense of responsibility of the members and the coordination and support of relevant departments and branches, especially the support of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Mai Ho Minh