A voluntary youth helping tourists crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Diep Duc Minh
Seventy percent of international tourists do not return to Vietnam for a second time and there are seven things that scare many of them away, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said at a tourism promotion conference in Quang Nam Tuesday.
1.robberies,
2.minor thefts,
3.traffic gridlock
4.traffic accidents
5.services quality
6.dirty toilets
7.pollution
“Vietnam is a promising destination but it lacks three vital elements: competence [of relevant agencies], services and specific products.”
A day earlier the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed setting up a tourism promotion fund with an initial corpus of at least VND300 billion ($13.11 million).
Hue said the problem facing Vietnam’s tourism is lack of creativity, not lack of money.
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“A recent seven-minute video about Vietnam tourism, made using a fly-cam and in nine languages by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has been effective in promoting [the country] to the world.”
Last month the tourism ministry drafted a plan that targets annual revenues of US$30 billion and a 10 percent share of GDP by 2020.
Vietnam earned VND338 trillion ($15.1 billion) last year after attracting more than 7.9 million international visitors and 57 million domestic tourists.
It attracted more than 4.7 million international visitors in the first half of this year, a 21 percent increase year-on-year.
It hopes to attract 14-15 million foreign visitors a year by 2020 and create around 3.5 million jobs in the tourism sector, according to the tourism ministry.
Thanh Nien News
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