Tourism transport activities in Nghe An are still lacking and weak.

(Baonghean) - Quy mô nhỏ, thiếu chuyên nghiệp, cạnh tranh chưa lành mạnh… là những nhận xét về hoạt động vận tải du lịch ở tỉnh ta hiện nay. Nhận diện thẳng thắn những hạn chế, bất cập, tìm giải pháp tháo gỡ để góp phần đưa du lịch Nghệ An ngày càng chuyên nghiệp, văn minh là điều cần làm ngay.

Cung không đủ cầu

Bàn về hoạt động của vận tải du lịch Nghệ An, ông Nguyễn Hữu Bắc - Chủ tịch Công ty Đầu tư du lịch PhucGroup chia sẻ câu chuyện thực tế: “Tháng 12/2016, công ty chúng tôi tổ chức đoàn 800 khách đi tour Việt Nam - Lào - Thái Lan. Số lượng khách đông, đi dài ngày, yêu cầu chất lượng dịch vụ cao, khi nhận khách, lo nhất là vấn đề xe vận chuyển. Bấy giờ tìm “đỏ mắt” ở Nghệ An cũng chỉ mới đáp ứng được khoảng 30% nhu cầu. Ngày 23 - 25/6 tới đây, công ty lại nhận đoàn 1.300 khách cũng gặp khó trong việc huy động xe. Chúng tôi phải liên kết với một doanh nghiệp vận tải ở Hà Nội, sử dụng 100% xe từ Hà Nội vào mới đáp ứng số lượng và chất lượng dịch vụ cho khách hàng”.

Tourist convoy for Vietnam - Laos - Thailand tour of PhucGroup Company.

The peak tourist season in Nghe An is around Tet and summer, around May to July. Currently, it is the tourist season, many travel agencies are struggling to rent cars to serve customers.

Mr. Phan Dang Hung - Director of Australia - Vietnam International Joint Stock Company shared: "At peak times, we have to call each vehicle individually to pick up passengers. The quality requirements for tourist passenger transport vehicles are very high, the vehicle must have a TV system, speakers, microphone, wifi, cool air conditioning; the vehicle must have a beautiful appearance, standard seats... There are many passenger transport vehicles in Nghe An, but there is still a lack of vehicles that meet the requirements for transporting tourists."

Looking for information about Nghe An tourism transport, it is quite surprising to know that in the whole province there is not a single enterprise registered to do business in road tourist transport. Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung - Head of Transport Management Department, Department of Transport said that currently there are only 35 enterprises registered for passenger transport business license by car under contract. With this type of license, enterprises can both receive contracts to transport tourists, and can also contract to transport tourists for sightseeing, weddings, extracurricular activities... Most of the 35 enterprises are small-scale, with an average of only about 2-3 cars, very few enterprises have large investments.

Explaining this, many business owners said that because Nghe An tourism is seasonal, about 6-7 months a year the cars are "idle" in the garage. Business owners must be flexible in finding "connections" to have cars with contracts to transport passengers with many different requirements and cannot depend on each source of tourists. "That is the main reason why we do not register for a tourist passenger transport business license but choose to register for a passenger transport business license by car under contract. If we register for a tourist passenger transport business license, according to regulations, we can only transport tourists, so businesses will be bound and very passive" - ​​a business owner explained.

Due to lack of professionalism, the quality of tourist transport in terms of human factors, vehicles, etc. is still limited. Tourist car drivers are not only drivers, but also guides, chatters, encouragers, and helpers on the journey. They must always have a civilized and polite attitude, and be conscious of promoting the image of local tourism. In fact, this factor in business units participating in tourist transport has not really been focused on.

Unfair competition

Unfair competition is a comment that many transport businesses in the province emphasized when discussing the actual operations in Nghe An. "Currently, there are many vehicles with Lao license plates, vehicles that are past their expiration date, violating regulations on transporting tourists, but they still pick up and drop off passengers. The cost they spend is very low, so the contract price is also low, making it difficult for large-investing businesses like us to compete. A segment of customers only choose vehicles based on the price list and do not care about quality, making transportation activities difficult," said a travel business owner in Vinh City.

Many travel businesses in Nghe An have to rent cars from Hanoi to transport tourists.

Sharing the same opinion, many business owners affirmed that "illegally" Lao-licensed cars are "cheap", imported at approximately half the price of cars in Vietnam, and registering for intermodal transport in Laos is also quite easy. Notably, Lao cars do not have a specified age limit, do not require the installation of a journey monitoring device, and regulations on passenger transport are also relatively "loose". In particular, many Lao car owners operating in Vietnam also share with each other many ways to "dodge" registration tax and road fees, helping to reduce the cost of Lao cars' transportation to the maximum level.

“According to regulations, tourist transport must have insurance for each passenger on the vehicle, the insurance level can be up to 100 million VND/incident/person. However, some bus companies currently deliberately do not do this, they often make "verbal" transactions with customers without binding contracts, customers are also ignorant so they just choose the cheapest bus company without carefully understanding the benefits they are entitled to. When they encounter risks, it is too late to realize!” - a business owner further analyzed.

To rectify the situation of "Lao vehicles, Vietnamese drivers" participating in illegal tourist transport, recently, the Department of Transport has coordinated with the Provincial Police to organize inspections and rectifications. However, some constraints on handling authority and transport regulations between the two countries have caused certain difficulties for the forces. Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung - Head of Transport Management Department, Department of Transport said that the Department regularly organizes conferences, disseminates the provisions of the Agreement and Protocol on international intermodal passenger transport to vehicle owners and drivers to contribute to raising awareness and understanding of the law. Along with that, strictly implement the Joint Circulars between the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Regarding the Department of Tourism, Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Director of the Department said: "In reality, tourism transport activities in Nghe An are still lacking and weak, and professionalism is not high. To overcome this, in addition to coordinating with relevant sectors to conduct inspections and supervision, the Department also regularly organizes training courses for drivers and service staff on tourist transport vehicles. At the same time, increase propaganda so that people understand and grasp their rights and obligations when deciding to sign tourism transport contracts with businesses, thereby making the right and safe choices."

Phuoc Anh