Consultants sought for long-term tourism development plan

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism is looking for foreign experts to help map out a national tourism development strategy for 2011-2020 and with a vision toward 2030.
Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the administration, told the Daily that the department was working on the plan and would pass it to the Prime Minister late this year. The administration has sent some officials abroad to learn about tourism development there.
“We want to hear from foreign experts, and will invite some international consultants to help with the plan,” he said.
He said the new plan would focus on resolving four outstanding problems faced by Vietnam’s tourism: lack of a national strategy, little attention to tourism product development, insufficient human resources and poor marketing. “We need change,” Tuan said.
He said the tourism industry would be calling for foreign and local investment capital to better infrastructure and services in the years to come.
“The country’s tourism sector will undergo some breakthroughs in the coming time,” Tuan said.
Regarding on tourism product development, the new strategy will focus on potentials like natural landscapes, cultural heritage especially the World Heritage sites, and unique cultural communities.
Vietnam will also develop sea tourism as an important product for both local and international tourists.
The tourism administration once expected Vietnam would receive around six million foreign visitors in 2020. However, this may not be realized because the country just received nearly 2.2 million international travelers in the first seven months of this year.
“We received 4.2 million foreigners last year. The goal of six million looks unattainable because of slowdown in the tourism industry but we believe that Vietnam’s tourism will grow strongly in the next ten years,” Tuan said.
The country received over 2.4 million foreign visitors in 2003, and the figure rose to around 4.2 million last year. The number of local visitors was 20 million last year.
Tourism revenue amounted to VND60 trillion in 2008 and around VND32.4 trillion in the first seven months of this year, up 8.7% year-on-year.
Vietnam has around 764 international travel firms, and a huge number of domestic travel companies as well as 10,800 lodgings with 208,000 rooms.