Travel firms left waiting for 2010 tourism plan

With plans for the 2010 National Tourist Year still stuck with Hanoi’s Mayor, travel firms are getting impatient.
While the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNAT) and Hanoi authorities are to hold a ceremony later this week to announce the 2010 National Tourist Year, the deputy director of the Hanoi Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Mai Tien Dung reveals plans are yet to be approved.
Travel firms are arguing that in order to prepare for the national tourist year they should already have received information so they can negotiate with foreign partners on bringing tourists to Vietnam as well as launching marketing campaigns.
Nguyen Cong Hoan, deputy director of Hanoi Redtour, complains the draft plan for the 2010 National Tourist Year remains very vague with lots of unclear information. Travel firms still don’t know who will be invited to festivals and how many festival admission tickets will be delivered
In general, foreign partners ask Vietnamese travel firms to inform of programme schedules between September and October 2009, so they can offer tours to tourists in the next high season between October 2010 and April 2011.
However, Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, deputy director of Vietnamtourism in Hanoi, says that without exact schedules it still cannot design and sell tours.
Hoan says he hopes that after the 2010 National Tourist Year announcing ceremony to be held on October 10, travel firms will finally receive the information. He believes it is particularly important that each firm works together.
He says: “We would be unable to attract foreign tourists if every travel firm launched its own separate marketing campaign.”
Director of Vietran, Nguyen Do Phuong says his firm has had to resort to a private marketing campaign launched in April 2009 but, to date, it has not attracted many customers.
VNAT’s general director Nguyen Van Tuan said VNAT would support Hanoi in marketing. A sum of 300 million dong will be budgeted to help Hanoi establish tourism information kiosks in important places like Hoan Kiem Lake and Noi Bai airport. VNAT will also publish three publications entitled 1000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi and print new Hanoi maps.