(TITC) On June 23, in Ha Noi, VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu jointed virtual KOPIST High-Level Policy Forum 2021 under the theme “Tourism Pivoting: Challenges and Opportunities”.
Attending the forum were Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea, and leaders of national tourism authorities, national tourism organizations, regional tourism organizations from 10 partner countries of Korea.
Viet Nam delegation at the forum (Photo: TITC)
Speaking at the forum, VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu said that Viet Nam has suspended the entry of international tourists and mostly pays efforts for domestic tourism. Tourism is one of the most vulnerable sectors and faced severe impacts due to COVID-19, such as sharp falls in tourist arrivals and tourism receipts, temporary close of travel and hotel enterprises, and tourism labour problems. All of these factors make tourism recovery an urgent issue that needs to tackle.
The Government of Viet Nam has paid great efforts to support the tourism industry and find effective measures to re-vitalise tourism and re-open the border at the soonest possible. Recently, the Government agreed to consider the pilot Vaccine Passport for international visitors in safe destinations, such as Phu Quoc island.
Now, the current international context has totally changed tourism into a “new normal” stage, which requires tourism policymakers as well as service providers to adapt to new situation and demand, which are more safety and health-oriented. Such as contactless services, online and transparent transaction, flexible booking and cancellation policies, virtual experiences and so on. But since Viet Nam are observing the new trend of tourism innovation and digital transformation followed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this challenging period is also an opportunity for Viet Nam as well as other countries to recover and develop by adopting the innovation and technology in tourism.
From the Government perspective, Viet Nam has launched the travel mobile app to ensure the safety conditions for travellers and tourism workers. At the same time, the private sector has been proactive in innovating and digitalising their service process in various ways, such as marketing, sales, and serving manner. This is an in-evitable trend to avoid lagging behind.
At the KOPIST 2021, delegates shared information of rapid direction shifting in tourism, response to the future of tourism and discussed about the way forward.
In the framework of KOPIST, Korea will also organized a online training programme for tourism officers scheduled from 19-30 July 2021. Participants are eligible to earn additional points in the “Action Plan Competition”.
Tourism Information Technology Center