Proposal to establish a Ministry of Tourism

Experts say that for the smokeless industry to develop strongly, it is necessary to upgrade the General Department of Tourism to the Ministry of Tourism.

Construction scene in Sa Pa.

At the workshop "Issues in restructuring the tourism industry" organized by the General Department of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on December 22, Mr. Luong Hoai Nam proposed to establish a Ministry of Tourism instead of the current general department, to help the tourism industry develop more effectively.

Citing the 2017 tourism competitiveness index report of the World Economic Forum, in which Vietnam was only ranked 67th out of 136 ranked tourism sectors, although it ranked 34th in natural tourism resources, 30th in cultural resources and business tourism..., Mr. Luong Hoai Nam said that the competitiveness of Vietnam's tourism is very weak.

"With 10 million international arrivals in 2016, Vietnam is still far behind regional tourist destinations such as Thailand (32.6 million), Malaysia (26.8 million), Singapore (16.4 million)... Vietnam's advantages in tourism resources and human resources are being held back, even neutralized by many bottlenecks," said Mr. Nam.

Mr. Nguyen Van Luu, former head of the Department of Organization and Personnel under the General Department of Tourism, also said that in order for tourism to truly become a spearhead economic sector, the General Department of Tourism needs to restructure into a Ministry of Tourism with more specialized functional departments.

A foreign tourist in Sa Pa was "surrounded" by children selling souvenirs.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, it is necessary to upgrade the General Department of Tourism so that recommendations on tourism development can reach closer to the Government's desk.

Mr. Cung said that there are too many problems that give tourists a bad impression of Vietnam tourism such as fraud when buying and selling goods and services; expensive prices; poor foreign language skills and service attitude of service staff; and a lack of diverse products...

To increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism, many experts suggest expanding the visa exemption policy for citizens of other countries, establishing a tourism development fund under the public-private partnership model, and increasing spending on tourism promotion.

In particular, according to Mr. Cung, it is necessary to develop a set of criteria for sustainable tourism development to end debates about the impact of real estate projects on the natural environment...

According to tuoitre.vn