Finding solutions to 'rescue' Nghe An tourism

Rescue solution

The Covid-19 outbreak is a major challenge for the Vietnamese tourism industry. Difficulties and lack of revenue are common situations for many businesses operating in the tourism sector. In Nghe An, the number of guests staying at hotels has decreased by 85-90%. The number of visitors to restaurants serving tourists and tourist destinations has also decreased similarly. Travel agencies have "empty" tours until April 2020.

In Nghe An, the number of guests staying at hotels has decreased by 85-90%. The number of guests visiting tourist restaurants and tourist destinations has also decreased by a similar amount.

To rescue tourism, central and local levels and sectors have held many meetings and the unified solution proposed is to step up promotion and advertising activities, build stimulus programs to regain and maintain tourists' trust in the image of Vietnam as a safe and attractive destination.

To implement the solution, on February 25, 2020, the General Department of Tourism issued Official Dispatch No. 162/TCDL-TTDL on the domestic and international tourism stimulus program to restore the post-Covid-19 market. The program will be held nationwide for the domestic market; for the international market, priority will be given to Southeast Asia, India, Russia, Australia and Europe. The domestic tourism stimulus program will be implemented from March to August 2020 with the message "Vietnam is safe". The international tourism stimulus program will be implemented from April to December 2020 with the message "VietnamNOW".

This document requires the Department of Tourism of localities to develop plans to respond to and participate in the program; have policies to support, exempt, and reduce fees and charges for visiting tourist areas and attractions managed by localities; build on-site promotional campaigns, ensuring a safe, secure, friendly and quality tourism environment; mobilize and encourage tourism, service and hotel businesses in the area to participate in the program...

Tourism associations in localities need to respond to and participate in the program; proactively plan to implement the program and encourage members to participate in the program locally. The document also requires Vietnam Airlines to offer a discount of up to 50% on ticket prices for the stimulus program.

Comrade Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee directed at the meeting related to "rescue" work for the tourism industry.

In Nghe An, on February 10 and 18, two meetings were held regarding the "rescue" work for the tourism industry. Concluding and directing these two meetings, Mr. Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Provincial Tourism Development Steering Committee stated: "The tourism industry needs to build tourism products to be ready to welcome tourists when the epidemic is over. The Department of Tourism synthesizes recommendations from businesses and submits them to the Provincial People's Committee for research and resolution; develops programs, plans, and tourism events to attract tourists immediately after the epidemic is over. The main content to be promoted is the image of Nghe An as friendly, civilized, safe, and doing a good job in disease prevention and control".

Need to promote the "conductor" role of the association

Implementing promotion, advertising and stimulus campaigns, it must be said that many localities in the country are currently very proactive in "saving themselves". For example, from February 21-24, the Tourism Association, tourism businesses of Da Nang city, Quang Nam province, Quang Ngai province invited the Travel Association, Nghe An Tourism Association to participate in a tourism promotion survey in the localities. The survey team of the association participating in the survey and promotion included nearly 40 people, exempted from all expenses for food, accommodation, sightseeing... Next, the provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen also invited the survey and promotion teams of associations and travel businesses in the North - Central - South to participate in the program "Vietnam Tourism Stimulus Survey 2020 Central Highlands - South Central" from March 3-8, 2020.

Nghe An Tourism Association participates in surveying, promoting and stimulating tourism in Quang Ngai province.

Currently, businesses and the Nghe An Tourism Association are also struggling to promote and promote tourism as well as participate in the general tourism stimulus program to attract tourists to Nghe An. Up to now, there is a travel agency in Nghe An that is coordinating with an outside business to organize a tourism promotion program to stimulate tourism "Western Nghe An - Laos". The program called "Let's Go To Laos" starts from March 4 - 8, 2020, with destinations in Nghe An being Con Cuong and Ky Son. Currently, 80 tourism units have registered to participate in the program... Particularly with the stimulus program of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, there are currently 5 units registered to participate, including 4 hotels and 1 travel agency, with a policy of 15% discount on hotel rooms and 15-35% discount on car rental fees.

Mr. Vo Hong Sang - Director of a Nghe An tourism company said: "Participating in the stimulus program is an opportunity to deploy individual and group tourists to Nghe An in a certain period. Currently, localities are very active in stimulating demand, but in reality, Nghe An has not yet launched tourism products and stimulus tours. Nghe An Tourism Association is having difficulty in coming up with solutions for tourism service providers to join forces to create products. Meanwhile, the Association must be the bridge and organize this activity. The moves to require units to send stimulus packages are just propaganda and have not "stimulated" demand. I hope the Association will organize a program to invite units to participate in discussions to come up with practical stimulus products."

The "slowness" in tourism promotion, promotion and stimulus activities also has an internal cause, which is that tourism businesses are afraid of the effectiveness of this activity during the current Covid-19 epidemic period, waiting for the epidemic to subside before proceeding. Ms. Le Phuong Anh - Director of a tourism company in the province expressed a different opinion: "Currently, based on the assessment of the actual situation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to remove Vietnam from the list of destinations that are likely to spread the new strain of Corona virus to the community. Besides, Nghe An is a locality that is implementing Covid-19 epidemic prevention very well. We need to soon carry out promotional, promotion and stimulus activities when the 990th anniversary of Nghe An's name and the 130th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday are approaching".

US CDC removes Vietnam from the list of possible SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Everyone should also respond to stimulus tours, especially domestic tours. Domestic stimulus tours are very cheap when they are specially supported by airlines, with some routes discounted by 70% - 80%; hotels, restaurants, and destinations reduce service prices by 10-70% compared to peak season; in addition, the tours are also supported by local authorities in terms of policies as well as support for visiting fees on routes and destinations managed by the state. The tours also have good synchronous product control when reducing prices without reducing service quality, especially, the companies and tourism units themselves are also very interested in the work of preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic.

However, in order for Nghe An tourism to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and achieve the set targets in terms of number of visitors and revenue, tourism units in the province hope that the "conductor" role of the Provincial Tourism Association will be more clearly demonstrated in working with businesses.

Share and support businesses

As soon as the Covid-19 epidemic appeared, Nghe An Department of Tourism had many activities to support and guide tourism businesses in epidemic prevention. On January 31, 2020, Nghe An Department of Tourism issued urgent document No. 92/SDL - QLCSLT with the content of implementing the prevention and control of acute respiratory infections caused by the Corona virus to tourist areas, destinations, travel businesses, tourist accommodation establishments, restaurants and service establishments recognized as meeting standards for serving tourists in the province.

Next, the Department established working groups to inspect and support tourist areas, tourist attractions, travel businesses, tourist accommodation establishments, restaurants and service establishments. The inspection and guidance contents include: environmental sanitation, spraying disinfectants; propaganda about the epidemic for tourists and staff; stabilizing the organization; implementing human resource training, improving service quality; building a mindset and tourism products to be ready to welcome tourists when the epidemic is over... The working group of Nghe An Department of Tourism also had exchanges and shared difficulties with accommodation establishments and tourism businesses; as well as discussed and found solutions to restore and promote tourism growth again after the epidemic is over.

In February 2020, Nghe An Department of Tourism coordinated with the Tourism Association twice to organize a dialogue conference to respond to the Covid-19 epidemic and discuss solutions for tourism development in the province. At the dialogue conference, tourism businesses raised difficulties in production, business activities and prevention of nCoV epidemic at the present time, namely: Lack of masks for tourists and tourism staff; no direction for operations during and after the epidemic... The difficulties of businesses have been compiled by the Department and submitted to the Provincial People's Committee.

Currently, in the context of Nghe An tourism needing to be "rescued", the Department is trying to fulfill its role and tasks well. In the immediate future, on March 4, the Department and Con Cuong district will welcome the Famtrip delegation "Let's Go Laos" to the locality. Then, on March 14-15, the Department will organize a reception for the Famtrip delegation of the Hanoi Unesco Club with the participation of 90-100 tourism businesses to Nghe An. During the month, the Department will work with a group of tourism experts to research and develop products to serve Russian tourists.