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

(Baonghean) - Small scale, unprofessionalism, unhealthy competition... are comments on tourism transportation activities in our province today. Frankly identifying limitations and shortcomings, finding solutions to help make Nghe An tourism more professional and civilized is something that needs to be done immediately.

Supply cannot meet demand.

Discussing the activities of Nghe An tourism transport, Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac - Chairman of PhucGroup Tourism Investment Company shared a real story: “In December 2016, our company organized a group of 800 guests to go on a tour of Vietnam - Laos - Thailand. The number of guests was large, traveling for a long time, requiring high quality services. When receiving guests, the most worrying issue was the issue of transportation vehicles. At that time, searching "red-eyed" in Nghe An could only meet about 30% of the demand. On June 23 - 25, the company received a group of 1,300 guests and also encountered difficulties in mobilizing vehicles. We had to cooperate with a transportation company in Hanoi, using 100% of vehicles from Hanoi to meet the quantity and quality of services for customers".

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: "During peak times, we have to call each vehicle to "pick up" and then combine them into a group to pick up and drop off passengers. The quality requirements for tourist passenger transport vehicles are very high, the vehicle must have a TV system, speakers, microphones, 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 transportation, it is quite surprising to know that in the whole province, there is not a single enterprise registered to do business in road tourist transportation. Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung - Head of Transport Management Department, Department of Transport said that currently, there are only 35 enterprises registered for business licenses to transport passengers by car under contract. With this type of license, enterprises can both receive contracts to transport tourists, and can also contract to transport visitors for sightseeing, weddings, extracurricular activities, etc. 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 are spent sitting idle in the garage. Business owners must be flexible in finding "connections" for 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 constrained and very passive" - ​​a business owner explained.

Because of unprofessionalism, the quality of tourist transportation 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, always having a civilized and gentle attitude, and being conscious of promoting the image of local tourism. In fact, this factor has not really been focused on by business units participating in tourist transportation.

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 usage period, 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 "illegal" cars with Lao license plates are "cheap", imported at about 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 "evade" registration tax and road fees, helping to reduce the operating costs of Lao cars to the maximum.

“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 are currently deliberately ambiguous and 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 researching their rights. 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.

On the side of 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 related 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 choice".

Phuoc Anh