We joined CBI's tourism training course in Hanoi

Vietnam is in a great position to develop tourism on a high scale in terms of quantity and quality over the next years. It has got the advantage to be a fairly new destination for tourists from all over the world. Vietnam has all the right components like beaches, culture, nature etc. to cover a wide range of offers, but needs to make the right steps forward including environmental and socio cultural aspects on the basis of latest technologies and experiences of others countries.
The infrastructure has to be improved to ease speed and quality of access. Foreign investments will speed up the entire process but it has to be supported by the government properly.
CBI held the workshop in Hanoi. It was strongly supported by Hanoi Trade Promotion Center and organised by the Vietnam Tourism Association. More than forty companies registered mostly incoming agencies as well as some hotels. There was a lot of interest in the training. Many of these private companies started just within the last 5 to 6 years. They are successful on a lower scale and so far are keen to get or increase market-shares in Europe. They are competing with the more experienced government-owned incoming operators but use the advantage of flexibility and personalised services. Many of the employees of these companies have master degrees, mostly in tourism and languages.
The participants learned how to use the content of the CBI database to investigate their potential target markets and how to implement planning processes in using the single steps of the Export Marketing Plan, leading them finally into the decision for ECP coaching. The willingness to use those tools was very high. It was pointed out again and again that without a structured organisation (Management levels), workflow and planning there would be no way to grow over a certain extent.
After 2 days intensive training with some interactive sessions and many concrete questions the following days was blocked for one on one meetings.
60% of the participants applied for the ECP programme.
Some companies were finally audited on days 4 and 5, showing that there is great potential for their development. They all had some strong points already in their model of doing business. But with some additional coaching like that of the ECP programme they all have a chance to become important players in their country.
External Experts: Wolfgang Coym (Germany) and Clive Bishop (UK)

June 24, 2009