"I will spend time promoting Nghe An tourism brand"

(Baonghean) -In 2012, the first term Vietnam Tourism Ambassador Ly Nha Ky had many practical and effective activities in promoting the image of the country and Vietnamese people to international friends, as well as promoting tourism in particular... Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with her about the story of developing tourism in the country in general, and Nghe An in particular.

Reporter:Please tell us how, in your role as Tourism Ambassador 2012, you promoted the image of Vietnam and its people to international friends?

Ly Nha Ky:After being appointed Tourism Ambassador, I immediately started to carry out the task of campaigning for Ha Long Bay to become a new natural wonder of the world; going to a number of universities, including international schools in Vietnam, to introduce Vietnam and call on tourists to come and explore the beauty of the country and people of Vietnam; organizing a number of activities in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to campaign for votes for Ha Long Bay.

Implementing the Government's policy on socialization of tourism promotion activities, I have participated in mobilizing businesses in Hong Kong to coordinate with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to implement a program to promote investment, trade and tourism in Hong Kong; as well as many times representing the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to attend many dialogues on culture, tourism and sports, participating in ceremonies to recognize world natural wonders of countries such as the Philippines, South Africa..., meeting international leaders, international stars. The most recent is the race to win the right to host the 18th Asian Games in 2019 for Hanoi City.

Besides, I also have many projects to promote tourism images for other lands, but have not had the opportunity to carry them out yet...

Ly Nha Ky at the ceremony to recognize the world's natural wonders of various countries held in South Africa by the New7Wonder organization.
(Photo provided by the character)

PV:In your opinion, what does Vietnam need to improve to attract more tourists?

Ly Nha Ky:Keeping pace with the country's innovation, the tourism industry has made many advances and achieved remarkable successes over the past year. In addition to these achievements, the tourism industry has also revealed many limitations and shortcomings; many difficulties and obstacles have not been satisfactorily resolved; not commensurate with the country's potential and advantages; development but still contains many unsustainable factors.

Vietnam's tourism must focus on quality, brand, professionalism and modernity: building a system of typical and high-quality tourism products and types on the basis of promoting the value of unique, distinctive tourism resources with outstanding strengths; identifying target markets with market segments according to tourism purposes and payment capacity; prioritizing attracting tourists with high spending capacity, with pure tourism purposes, long-term stays; focusing on tourists for relaxation, entertainment, weekends, business trips, shopping; attracting and strongly developing the international tourist market nearby; enhancing the exploitation of the high-end tourist market, expanding new markets; for brand development, it is necessary to focus on developing a number of prominent tourism brands in the region and the world, aiming to build the Vietnam Tourism brand, such as: Saigontourist, Vinpearl Land, Ha Long, Phu Quoc, Mui Ne, Hoi An, Hue, Sapa, Da Lat ...; The promotion sector needs to focus on promoting and professionalizing promotion activities aimed at target markets, taking destinations, tourism products and tourism brands as the main promotion objects.

PV:What do you think about the tourism potential of Nghe An province?

Ly Nha Ky:Please allow me to not mention the advantages of geographical location and traffic. I would like to mention the fact that Nghe An is a locality with a dense network of historical relics (over 1,000 relics), rich in cultural values ​​for tourists to learn and explore, especially the Kim Lien National Special Historical and Cultural Relic Site. Regarding natural landscapes, Nghe An has Cua Lo beach - one of the most beautiful beaches in the North, Pu Mat National Park - World Biosphere Reserve... With all these factors, I think that Nghe An's tourism potential is huge. Up to now, I have been to Nghe An many times, but I feel that I am still "indebted" because there have not been many tourism promotion activities for Nghe An. Certainly in the coming time, I will spend more time promoting tourism in Nghe An.

PV:Currently, Nghe An is striving to turn tourism into a spearhead economic sector and develop sustainably; by 2020, Nghe An is striving to become a key tourism destination of the whole country. Can you give advice to help Nghe An Tourism achieve this goal?

Ly Nha Ky:Tourism must start from planning, and investment must be good. For Nghe An, investment capital for tourism development needs to be mobilized from both internal and external resources. To attract resources from outside, Nghe An needs to have an open mechanism to create favorable conditions for investors. Besides, it is possible to call for funding from international organizations. In the long term, we must rely mainly on internal resources. How can we get revenue from tourism to continue investing in tourism development at some point? Besides, Nghe An needs to have active measures in propaganda work on preserving the ecological environment and landscape, professionalizing tourism services to build the image of Nghe An as a green, clean, beautiful, safe, friendly, hospitable; regularly organize and widely promote large-scale cultural, sports and festival activities to attract the attention of the public at home and abroad. But no matter what form of promotion is used, it must be based on substance, the most basic thing is to create prestige and trust in the hearts of tourists to be able to develop sustainably and long-term. Nghe An also needs to focus on building an entertainment service system. Entertainment activities must be organized regularly and attractively, with a variety of types to avoid boredom, creating a unique style because tourists always have the need to explore new, unique and special things of each region.

PV:Nghe An is submitting to UNESCO for recognition of Vi and Giam folk songs as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in need of urgent protection - Are you willing to contribute to soon making Vi and Giam folk songs of Nghe An an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in need of urgent protection?

Ly Nha Ky:I am very willing; because doing anything for my country makes me very happy, my pride in my country is multiplied. I have also learned and sung some folk songs…

PV:Thank you!

Thanh Chung (Implementation)