How to maintain the image of Vietnamese tourists abroad?

Most tourism experts believe that the most important thing to preserve the image of Vietnamese tourists when traveling abroad is to raise awareness among people through propaganda, education, and even training right from kindergarten.

"One bad apple spoils the barrel"

The question of how to maintain the image of Vietnamese tourists when traveling abroad continues to be raised after many incidents related to bad behavior of Vietnamese tourists abroad were discovered or brought to trial recently.

Responding to To Quoc Electronic Newspaper, most tourism experts said that the phenomenon of Vietnamese tourists stealing in foreign countries is an isolated case, and cannot represent the image of Vietnamese tourists traveling abroad. However, those "bad apples spoil the barrel" will inadvertently damage the reputation of Vietnamese tourists abroad as well as the image of Vietnam.

From a business perspective, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich - Director of Rustic Mekong Travel Company believes that cases of tourists committing petty theft and being caught while traveling abroad are only a small part of tourists with poor awareness, affecting the general image of Vietnamese tourists. Mr. Bich believes that this problem is difficult to blame on the business that takes tourists or the tourism industry, because this is due to the awareness of individual tourists.

Most Vietnamese tourists behave civilly when traveling abroad, but a small number of tourists have poor awareness, causing bad images for the image of Vietnamese tourists abroad.

However, to limit these bad phenomena from happening, travel agencies that take tourists on trips also need to be aware of their responsibility in disseminating and instructing tourists on what to do and what not to do, and at the same time warn about bad behaviors that can lead to serious consequences. I think that if businesses proactively do that, it will contribute to limiting the situation of Vietnamese tourists having bad behaviors at foreign destinations," Mr. Bich suggested.

In addition, the Director of Rustic Mekong Tourism Company also said that in the long term, it is necessary to find solutions to raise awareness for people when traveling abroad, otherwise it is difficult to avoid the situation of "kidnapping and abandoning the plate". However, he also emphasized that the story of raising awareness for Vietnamese tourists needs the attention of the whole society, of all sectors, not just the responsibility of an individual business or the tourism industry.

Agreeing with this view, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Truong Hoang - Head of the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism (National Economics University) said that the story about the behavior of Vietnamese tourists abroad goes beyond the problems of the tourism industry. Therefore, to limit or prevent this situation, the attention of the whole society is needed.

This tourism expert also agrees with the proposal to develop a code of conduct for Vietnamese tourists when traveling abroad to gradually raise awareness and make the behavior of Vietnamese tourists abroad a standard. “Most Vietnamese tourists have awareness and standard behavior when traveling abroad, but a small number of tourists with bad behavior are like “a bad apple spoiling the barrel”, they have never been exposed to these issues and do not understand that their behavior may be appropriate in Vietnam, but not appropriate internationally, or will damage the national image…. Therefore, they need to be provided with information, need to be propagated and educated in this aspect. Codes of conduct for Vietnamese tourists when traveling abroad are absolutely necessary” - Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Truong Hoang shared.

Soft skills training should be included from high school level.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Tourism, said that due to the increasing improvement of people's living standards, people tend to travel abroad more and more. However, the experience and experience of many Vietnamese tourists abroad is still limited, leading to behaviors that "distort" the image of Vietnamese tourists in the eyes of international friends.

Deputy General Director Ha Van Sieu said that this is also an issue that the tourism industry is interested in finding solutions to both raise awareness for people to have civilized behavior when traveling abroad, while maximizing travel time, gaining the highest experience values, thereby creating a good image for Vietnamese tourists, and at the same time contributing to promoting the image of the country and people of Vietnam.

“There are no sanctions to bind responsibility for tourists’ behavior, but in the tourism industry’s guidelines as well as on specialized information forums, we all aim at this issue, regulating what tourists can and cannot do to gradually build a generation of tourists who travel smarter, achieve better values ​​and cause less harm to the surrounding environment,” said Mr. Ha Van Sieu.

According to Deputy General Director Ha Van Sieu, in fact, the World Tourism Organization has a code of conduct for tourists and this code has been popularized on tourism industry websites as well as localities. However, the codes of conduct are only suggestions and references, and for tourist behavior to become social norms, a long-term training process to change awareness is needed. "All behaviors, whether good or bad, need to be recognized by society, penetrate into life and be accepted by all people as normal living. If we come up with very good standards but society does not recognize them, they will not be put into practice," Mr. Sieu commented.

According to the leader of the General Department of Tourism, issues related to behavioral culture should be included early in soft skills training programs for students at all levels in order to form correct awareness among the people. That is the root solution to the problem of how to improve the image of Vietnamese tourists abroad./.

According to toquoc.gov.vn