Nghe An's tourism sector has recovered and developed strongly again after a long period of stagnation due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. In the first 10 months, the number of tourists is estimated at 6.14 million, up 244% over the same period in 2021, of which the number of overnight guests is estimated at 3.95 million, up 224%; tourism revenue is estimated at VND 5,074 billion, up 382% over the same period in 2021.
The above results reflect the great potential of Nghe An tourism, especially after 5 years of concretizing Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW, dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector in the province. Last September, the Provincial Party Standing Committee reviewed 5 years of implementing Resolution No. 08, thereby agreeing on 8 outstanding results that the province has achieved. These are innovation in thinking and awareness; restructuring the tourism industry to ensure professionalism, modernity and sustainable development according to the market economy and international integration; institutions and policies; investment in developing infrastructure and technical facilities of the industry; strengthening promotion; creating a favorable environment for businesses and the community to develop tourism; taking care of building tourism human resources and enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of State management of tourism.
However, what made the working session on this topic at the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee forum exciting was the objective and frank view of the shortcomings and limitations of Nghe An's tourism industry, which was pointed out when the number of visitors and revenue of the industry had not really "exploded". Tourism must stand on two legs: "domestic" and "international", but basically, Nghe An tourism only attracts domestic visitors.
Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Agencies Party Committee expressed her concern: The provincial tourism industry has only provided tourists with what they already have, but has not provided tourists with what they need. Especially, in the current period, communication work in general, especially communication about tourism is very necessary to attract tourists, but according to Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, the communication method is also dry.
Another reason pointed out is that the province is seriously lacking an ecosystem of tourism infrastructure, resorts, hotels, entertainment, recreation, and shopping that can fully meet the needs of tourists, so that the province's tourism can escape the seasonal situation. Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung, when speaking about this content, frankly said: Attracting professional and classy investors in the tourism sector has not been much because the province is not attractive enough, has not brought enough efficiency for investors to come. For example, Western Nghe An has very good conditions for tourism development, but tourism infrastructure is almost non-existent. Even famous tourist locations such as Cua Lo do not have a large enough area for investment.
To recover and develop sustainable tourism after Covid-19, or simply put, to make the "Nghe An tourism house" attract many visitors and satisfy them, it is necessary to have "new thinking and new actions". This is also the spirit and viewpoint that the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee highly agreed upon when discussing the strategic orientation for the province's tourism in the coming time.
According to comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, it is necessary to develop a project or scientific report to accurately assess the tourism potential of Nghe An; especially the work of connecting tourist destinations to promote each other's strengths; the issue of supporting the preservation and promotion of cultural values serving tourism, as well as the need for a strategy to research tourist psychology according to each segment.
Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung said that, in addition to attracting investors and building truly professional infrastructure, which will change the perception of the province's tourism image, the authorities at all levels in the province, where there are destinations that have not yet received complete infrastructure investment, also need to pay attention to reviewing, arranging and organizing in a neat, orderly and methodical manner, in order to leave an impression on tourists.
Based on the shortcomings and limitations of Nghe An tourism, the Provincial Party Standing Committee has highly agreed on the development and promulgation of a Project to develop Nghe An tourism in the coming period. Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Provincial Party Secretary, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council emphasized: This Project must be highly focused on implementation, going into solutions to resolve the "stuck" issues of the provincial tourism industry.
First of all, in this phase, it is necessary to digitize the tourism database, online tourism maps, destinations associated with promoting and promoting Nghe An products and brands to tourists; along with that, build solutions to develop human resources for tourism in the following aspects: Tourism culture, tourism style, foreign languages to serve tourism; propose a tourism linkage strategy. In particular, in order to attract many professional investors, the Project needs to propose specific policies, especially on taxes and land for businesses investing in this field; at the same time, it is necessary to arrange a certain budget source to implement the project.
To “get customers to know, come, and stay for a long time”, Nghe An tourism must build attractive stories, affirm its own values, along with a basically synchronized tourism ecosystem. Of course, to do that, there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but only by going will you arrive…
