Developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector

The Politburo identified that developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector is an important strategic orientation for national development.

On January 16, 2017, on behalf of the Politburo, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong signed and issued Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector. Below is the full text of the Resolution:

RESOLUTION OF THE POLITBURO
on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector
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I- SITUATION

Over the past fifteen years, the tourism industry has made remarkable progress and achieved important and very encouraging results. The growth rate of international tourists reached 10.2%/year, domestic tourists reached 11.8%/year.

In 2016, the number of international tourists reached 10 million, an increase of more than 4.3 times compared to 2001; domestic tourists reached 62 million, an increase of 5.3 times compared to 2001; direct contribution is estimated at 6.8% of GDP, both indirect and spillover reached 14% of GDP.

Tourism infrastructure and technical facilities of the tourism industry are increasingly developed. The types of tourism products and services are increasingly rich and diverse. Quality and professionalism are gradually improved. The tourism business force is growing in both quantity and quality, creating a number of prestigious brands domestically and internationally. Initially forming a number of key tourist areas and areas.

The development of the tourism industry has been contributing to promoting economic restructuring and on-the-spot exports; preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage and natural resources; creating jobs, improving people's lives; accelerating the international integration process, promoting the image of the country and people of Vietnam.

However, the tourism industry still has some limitations and weaknesses. Tourism development is not commensurate with its potential, strengths and expectations of society. Tourism products are not really attractive and differentiated, and competitiveness is not high. The quality of tourism services does not meet requirements. The effectiveness and efficiency of state management of tourism is not high.

The tourism environment, food safety and traffic safety still have many shortcomings. Tourism promotion activities are still limited in terms of resources, coordination and professionalism, and efficiency is not high. Tourism human resources are both lacking and weak. Tourism enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises; capital, human resources and management experience are limited. The role of the community in tourism development has not been promoted.

The main reason for the above limitations and weaknesses is that all levels and sectors have not really considered tourism as a comprehensive economic sector, with interdisciplinary, inter-regional, highly socialized and internationally integrated nature, with profound cultural content; there is a lack of appropriate national policies for tourism to develop in accordance with the nature of an economic sector operating according to market rules.

The institutions and policies for tourism development have not met the development requirements and are still heavily subsidized. Inter-sectoral and inter-regional coordination is still ineffective; investment is still scattered, and many social resources have not been mobilized for tourism development. Training and development of tourism human resources have not received due attention.

II- VIEWPOINTS AND GOALS

1- Viewpoint

- Developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector is an important strategic orientation for national development, creating a driving force to promote the development of other sectors and fields, but not every locality necessarily identifies tourism as a spearhead economic sector.

- Developing tourism into a truly comprehensive service economic sector, inter-sectoral, inter-regional, focused, effective, branded and highly competitive; highly socialized and with profound cultural content; strengthening domestic and international links, focusing on links between the tourism industry and other industries and fields in the value chain that form tourism products.

- Develop both international and domestic tourism simultaneously; create favorable conditions for people and international tourists to visit, learn and explore the landscape, natural and cultural heritage of the country; respect and treat equally tourists from all markets.

- Develop sustainable tourism; preserve and promote cultural heritages and fine traditional values ​​of the nation; protect the environment and nature; properly resolve labor, employment and social security issues; ensure national defense, security, social order and safety.

- Tourism development is the responsibility of the entire political system, all levels, all sectors, and the whole society, with close leadership and direction from Party committees at all levels; strongly promoting the driving role of businesses and communities, and unified management of the State; concentrating national resources on tourism development.

2- Objective

- By 2020, the tourism industry will basically become a spearhead economic sector, creating a driving force for socio-economic development; be professional, have a relatively synchronous and modern technical infrastructure system; have high-quality, diverse, branded tourism products, imbued with national cultural identity, and be able to compete with other countries in the region.

Attracting 17-20 million international tourists, 82 million domestic tourists; contributing over 10% of GDP, total revenue from tourists reaching 35 billion USD; export value through tourism reaching 20 billion USD; creating 4 million jobs, including 1.6 million direct jobs.

- By 2030, tourism will truly be a spearhead economic sector, strongly promoting the development of other sectors and fields. Vietnam is among the countries with the most developed tourism industry in Southeast Asia.

III- TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1- Renewing awareness and thinking about tourism development

Realize that tourism is a comprehensive service economic sector, with interdisciplinary, inter-regional, highly socialized and profound cultural content; capable of making great contributions to economic development, creating many jobs, shifting economic structure and creating momentum for other sectors and fields to develop, bringing about multi-faceted effectiveness in terms of economy, culture, society, politics, foreign affairs, security and national defense.

Strongly innovate thinking, develop tourism according to market economy laws, ensure consistency in viewpoints, goals, action programs and have breakthrough institutions and policies to meet the requirements of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector.

Raising awareness among people, businesses and communities in building and protecting the image and environment, contributing to sustainable development, constantly enhancing the reputation, brand and attractiveness of Vietnam tourism.

2- Restructuring the tourism industry to ensure professionalism, modernity and sustainable development according to the laws of market economy and international integration.

Perfecting the structure of the tourism industry, ensuring synchronous development in the overall development of the national economy.

Review and adjust tourism development strategies and plans towards concentrating resources on building dynamic areas for tourism development.

Develop and implement the Project to restructure the tourism industry in the direction of prioritizing investment in developing tourism infrastructure; linking input value chains of industries; focusing on developing sea and island tourism products, cultural and spiritual tourism, eco-tourism and community tourism with high attractiveness and competitiveness; control and improve the quality of tourism products and services in a modern and different direction; innovate methods and improve the effectiveness of promotion activities associated with products and markets; ensure a safe and civilized tourism environment.

Provinces and centrally-run cities with potential and advantages for tourism development should urgently develop a project to restructure the local tourism industry.

3- Perfecting institutions and policies

Continue to improve the legal system; have appropriate and innovative mechanisms and policies to develop tourism into a spearhead economy, meeting the requirements and characteristics of a comprehensive economic sector, operating under market mechanisms. Issue mechanisms and policies to mobilize maximum social resources to invest in tourism development in the direction of restructuring the tourism industry.

In the immediate future, adjust, supplement and perfect policies directly related to tourism development:

- Regarding investment, issue policies to encourage and give incentives for investment in tourism, especially in key areas, remote areas with tourism potential, unique tourism products and training and development of tourism human resources. Strengthen public-private cooperation to mobilize social resources for tourism development. The State prioritizes capital allocation for planning, human resource training and promotion.

- Regarding finance, convert the sightseeing fee mechanism to a service price mechanism; adjust the electricity price applied to tourist accommodation establishments to be equal to the electricity price for production; have appropriate policies on land use tax and land rent for tourism projects with low land use coefficient for construction and height restrictions, reasonable land policies for the area of ​​dormitory construction and housing for tourism workers in places with limited human resources; create favorable conditions for value added tax refunds for tourists.

Establish and have a mechanism for managing and effectively using the Tourism Development Support Fund. The State budget initially supports the Fund and is supplemented annually from the revenue from entry visa fees, tourist fees, contributions from businesses, tourists and other legal sources.

- Regarding entry procedures, continue to improve and issue policies to create maximum convenience and simplicity in entry visa procedures for international tourists coming to Vietnam.

- For urgent issues that need to be implemented immediately to create a breakthrough for tourism development, if there are no legal documents or other regulations, a pilot implementation will be allowed.

4- Investing in developing infrastructure and technical facilities for the tourism industry

Allocate appropriate resources from the state budget to invest in developing transport infrastructure, especially in key and dynamic areas; improve transport connectivity to tourist areas and destinations, control service quality and ensure traffic safety for tourists. Invest in stops and rest stops on road tourist routes.

Promote the implementation of the "open sky" policy, implement the 5th aviation franchise; create conditions for airlines to open new routes connecting Vietnam with source markets, increase the frequency of existing routes; resolve bottlenecks and overload at airports. Focus on investing in a number of specialized seaports and inland waterway ports in areas with favorable conditions for developing sea and river tourism. Improve infrastructure and quality of railway services for tourists.

Strengthen the attraction of social resources to invest in developing the technical infrastructure system of the tourism industry. Encourage strategic investors to invest in forming complex tourism service areas, large-scale tourism service projects, high-quality shopping and entertainment centers in key areas.

5- Strengthen tourism promotion

Innovate methods and content, increase the application of modern technology, ensure unified and professional implementation and improve the effectiveness of domestic and international tourism promotion. Build and position the national tourism brand associated with a unique, dominant image, imbued with national cultural identity.

Combining the use of State resources and mobilizing the participation of the whole society in tourism promotion activities.

Enhance the role and responsibility of Vietnamese representative agencies and trade offices abroad in promoting tourism. Encourage tourism businesses to set up representative offices abroad. Promote the role of the Vietnamese community abroad in promoting tourism.

Promote the role of media agencies, create breakthroughs in domestic market promotion activities, combined with raising awareness of the role and position of the tourism industry.

6- Create a favorable environment for businesses and communities to develop tourism

Promote administrative reform, create a healthy, transparent, equal and favorable competitive environment for tourism businesses. Encourage businesses to innovate, create and diversify tourism types and products in line with the restructuring orientation of the tourism industry.

Support tourism start-up businesses, especially in remote areas. Focus on protecting intellectual property rights for tourism businesses; strictly handle unfair competition.

Create favorable conditions for people to directly participate in business and benefit from tourism; have policies to support the development of community tourism. Enhance the role of the community, build a civilized and friendly tourism community in dealing with tourists; promote the role of professional social organizations related to tourism.

7- Developing tourism human resources

The State has policies to attract investment in tourism human resource training; enhance the capacity of tourism training establishments in terms of technical facilities, content, programs and teaching staff. Promote socialization and international cooperation, attract resources to develop tourism human resources.

Diversify forms of tourism training. Promote the application of advanced science and technology in training, fostering and developing tourism human resources.

Improve the quality of human resources in both state management, business administration and tourism labor. Focus on improving vocational skills, foreign languages ​​and professional ethics for the labor force in the tourism industry.

Complete the national tourism occupational standards compatible with ASEAN standards; establish the National Tourism Occupational Council and the Tourism Occupational Certification Council.

8- Strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of state management of tourism

Complete the legal system on tourism and related fields to facilitate tourism development; complete the system of national standards and regulations in the tourism sector towards regional and international integration; improve the quality of tourism development planning.

Complete the state management apparatus on tourism in a synchronous, professional, effective and efficient manner, meeting the requirements of inter-sectoral and inter-regional management of tourism activities; promote the role of the State Steering Committee on Tourism.

Enhance the capacity, responsibility and authority of the General Department of Tourism. Establish tourism departments in localities with conditions for tourism development on the principle of not increasing staff.

Research to determine the model and system of organization and management of the tourism industry to meet the requirements of tourism development in the new situation.

Strengthen specialized and interdisciplinary inspection and examination work, control the service quality of hotel systems, travel businesses, tour guides and tourism service establishments; urgently deploy the application of information technology in tax and fee management activities to prevent revenue loss in tourism activities.

Promote the responsibility of leaders of local Party committees and authorities at all levels in organizing, implementing and managing tourism activities; thoroughly handle social evils such as stalking, forcing tourists, and snatching; ensure environmental hygiene and food safety, and build a civilized, safe and friendly tourism environment.

Promote international cooperation activities, promote potentials and strengths, and exploit opportunities and resources to develop and connect Vietnamese tourism with tourism from countries in the region and the world, while overcoming the limitations of Vietnamese tourism.

IV- IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1 - Provincial and municipal Party Committees, Party Committees, Party Executive Committees, Party Delegations and Party Committees directly under the Central Committee shall organize the dissemination and implementation of the Resolution; according to their functions and tasks, develop and deploy action plans and programs to implement the Resolution.

The Party Executive Committee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism directs the organization to disseminate, develop and deploy an action program to implement the Resolution in the tourism industry.

2- The Party Delegation of the National Assembly leads the amendment, supplementation or promulgation of new laws and ordinances, creating a favorable legal basis for tourism to develop into a spearhead economic sector.

3- The Government Party Committee directs the development and implementation of the Action Program to implement the Resolution; inspects, urges and periodically reports to the Politburo on the organization of the Resolution's implementation. The State Steering Committee on Tourism directs the coordination between ministries, branches and localities in implementing the Resolution./.