Tourism Stimulus Programme 2010

Aiming to welcome 4.2 million international visitors and 27-28 million domestic tourists this year, the Vietnamese tourism sector is paying more attention to cooperation with the trade sector.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has announced a tourism stimulus programme 2010 named “Vietnam – Your Destination”. The programme includes seven points; including three new ones, namely an off-sales programme at low season called “Impressive Vietnam Grand Sale 2010”, a tourism promotion programme for tourists who have come to Vietnam with the motto “Friendly Vietnam welcomes you” and a tourism programme back to origins for Overseas Vietnamese.

However, the most impressive event of the stimulus programme is the Vietnam grand sale at low season in every August and September, aiming to boost sales and attract both local and foreign visitors.

Vu The Binh, head of the travel department of the national tourism department, said the main tourism income source for Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore is from visitors’ shopping. These countries have successfully held off-sale programmes.

Statistics showed that, only 10-14% of travellers who come to Vietnam spend their money on shopping activities in the country, while the rate is up to 51 per cent in Thailand. Therefore, this year the Vietnamese tourism sector has built shopping tourism programmes.

Accordingly, in low season, the VNAT will join hands with the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade to launch off-sale campaigns in some big cities and tourism centres such as Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. The event attracts the participation of supermarkets, shops, tourism sites, hotels and restaurants.

Locations joining the event will offer a range of programmes such as picking up coupons for passengers to get gifts at supermarkets and off-sales programmes of between 10%-50%. Visitors only need to show their passports or ID cards to receive priorities for attending the programmes.

However, at this time, most travel firms in Hanoi have just learned about the programmes and have not yet received instructions for implementing them.

“We need instructions for the implementation. In reality, many documents are issued, but each locality carries out the programmes in a different way”, said Tran Van An, Director of Bien Xanh Tourism Centre under Thang Loi Hotel.

General Secretary Dinh Thi My Loan of the Vietnam Retailers Association said the tourism sector should boost cooperation with the trade sector as soon as possible.

Loan also added that the successful implementation of Promotion Month in Ho Chi Minh City in September and the month in Hanoi in November in 2009 were important foundations for this cooperation.

However, the VNAT has to date not yet had any meetings for the cooperation with the association.

Therefore, to bring benefit for both sides, VNAT should join hands with industry and trade departments to implement tourism stimulus programmes.

Tags: Vietnam Tourism, Vietnam Tourism Stimulus Programme 2010