Nghe An Tourism: Seizing the golden opportunity from the 4.0 industrial revolution

“Pocket” travel experience in Nghe An from AZ

(Baonghean.vn) - Nghe An is a “rising star” on the domestic tourism map. More and more domestic and foreign tourists are conquered by the breathtaking natural scenery, diverse types of tourism, convenient transportation, accommodation and dining services at unbelievably cheap prices…

PV: The action program to implement Resolution 08-NQ/TU of the Politburo on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector aims to make Nghe An one of the tourist centers of the North Central region and an attractive destination of the whole country by 2020. Up to this point, what specific steps has the province's tourism industry taken to achieve the above goals and roadmap, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong: In recent times, Nghe An tourism industry has received close attention and direction from the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, and Provincial People's Committee; policies, programs, and projects have been issued and implemented with the highest determination. Thanks to that, Nghe An tourism has made important progress, creating a premise for development in the coming time.

Notably, the infrastructure serving tourism, especially the traffic routes, has been invested in and has made breakthrough developments. Most of the traffic routes accessing the province's key tourist areas have been invested in and built, especially for coastal areas. Vinh International Airport has a new terminal, upgraded and expanded runways capable of receiving larger aircraft with a capacity of 2 million passengers/year...

Cultural and spiritual tourism is a traditional product and still "attracts visitors" of Nghe An. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, the space for tourism development has been gradually expanded in both area and type. In addition to Cua Lo beach and Kim Lien relic site, tourism activities have shifted strongly to the Western region and some neighboring districts with many new tourist attractions being formed. Tourism products have made positive changes in both quality and diversity.

Besides traditional products such as cultural - historical tourism associated with spirituality, beach resort tourism, recently, eco-tourism, conference - seminar tourism, community tourism, agricultural tourism... are on the rise.

Tourism facilities have developed rapidly in both scale and quality, especially tourist accommodation. As of August 31, 2018, the province had 839 tourist accommodation facilities with 20,054 rooms, the number of 3-5 star hotels is increasing. Tourism promotion and advertising activities have been promoted in more diverse forms, bringing practical results.

Nghe An tourism has gradually grown quite well. In the period 2011-2016, the number of tourists staying increased by an average of nearly 6%/year, and tourism service revenue increased by 16%/year. By 2017, Nghe An tourism had a strong recovery after the marine environmental incident, with the number of visitors increasing by 35% and tourism revenue increasing by 43% compared to 2016.

In the first 9 months of 2018, the whole province welcomed over 5.3 million visitors, including nearly 3.7 million overnight visitors, equal to 111% compared to the same period in 2017; there were nearly 111,000 international visitors, up 17% compared to the same period in 2017; the total tourism revenue of the whole province is estimated at 6,637 billion VND, equal to 114% compared to the same period in 2017.

PV:The 4.0 industrial revolution is having a strong impact on the global tourism sector, including Vietnam. In Nghe An - a locality considered a "rising star" on the domestic tourism map, with a long-term vision, how do you assess the impact of the 4.0 industrial revolution in general, and the technology and digital sector in particular, on the province's tourism development?

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong:First of all, it must be affirmed that, in recent years, despite facing many difficulties and challenges, Nghe An tourism industry has always made constant efforts to overcome difficulties, grasp and join the general development trend of tourism in the whole country.

Facing the strong trend of the 4.0 industrial revolution, we realize that this revolution is not only the Internet but also artificial intelligence, a flat world, and the speed of information data connection.

Advanced technology will change the way tourism services are provided, change the role of tour guides and interpreters, and also affect the tourism industry through four basic types of services: accommodation, restaurants, tours and transportation, and digital marketing.

For state management of tourism, the industry has deployed the use of iOffice software and digital signatures to create an electronic working environment that is fast, accurate, saves time and office supplies costs.

In addition, the Department also deployed an "electronic one-stop" transaction application with many processes for receiving information, receiving documents, and responding online. Currently, the industry is coordinating with contractors to deploy the construction of an application software to promote the system of relics and scenic spots of Nghe An integrated on smartphones; aiming to build a new bilingual Vietnamese - English tourism website to easily search, access and link databases on Nghe An tourism with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, domestic and international provinces. Along with that, Nghe An tourism has been actively promoting the Nghe An tourism brand through channels such as: Website, Fanpage, Youtube...

For tourism businesses, technology also helps to minimize advertising and marketing costs; support online sales and convenient online payments; reduce labor and costs; link tours and routes, increase the number of customers and business performance... Currently, most tourism businesses in Nghe An are interested in using the Internet in advertising and business activities.

PV:We clearly see the benefits of technology and digital, but we also need to recognize that Nghe An tourism still has many limitations in accessing and applying these technologies. What are the directions and solutions for this problem, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong:I have been following the survey data of international tourists up to 2017 of the General Department of Tourism, according to which, 71% of tourists have consulted destination information on the internet, 64% have booked services online during their trip to Vietnam. Looking at these data, we can see the important influence of technology, of the internet in building travel habits and connecting tourists in the present era.

Have Nghe An businesses done this well? Frankly speaking, they have not and are even slow to catch up compared to some major provinces and cities in the country. Most Nghe An businesses use social networks and websites as "channels" for promotion, but the management of these tools is still weak. Many businesses have not invested properly in building professional websites that can grasp new technology trends.

From the perspective of state management, due to limited resources (human resources, financial resources, etc.), investment in building and upgrading websites to introduce service information in tourist areas and spots is still inadequate, many destinations in Nghe An do not have an official information "channel".

Promoting Nghe An tourism through website and Facebook channels is also an effective way.

We have not yet built mobile applications to guide routes, connect traffic, etc.; free internet service - a common thing in many famous tourist destinations in the country and the world, but our province has not yet done it. On the other hand, technology in tourism development is now relatively developed with 360-degree virtual reality tourism and augmented reality, multi-function tourist cards, automatic tour guides, QR code scanning software, etc.

We have changed our thinking, perception, thought and expected these technological changes, but to achieve them in reality, many factors are needed, first of all, state investment resources combined with social mobilization.

To gradually overcome limitations and access technological advances to serve the development of smart tourism, in the coming time, Nghe An Tourism will continue to direct the promotion of destinations; research and apply new technologies such as 360-degree smart tourism websites, online tourism through virtual reality, expand the development of social networks, synchronize and digitize tourism data, develop a number of automatic explanation models at tourist areas and spots associated with QR code scanning...

At the same time, continue to strengthen socialization, public-private cooperation in tourism development and attract large tourism projects, contributing to realizing the spirit of Resolution 08 of the Politburo in Nghe An./.

PV:Thank you for taking part in the interview!