Digital transformation for tourism development

Binh Duong province’s tourism sector has implemented digital transformation in activities to contribute to promoting its development. Although newly implemented, these activities have initially brought positive signals, especially in the introduction and promotion of information to attract more and more tourists.

Digital transformation in activities

Digital transformation has had a strong impact on all areas of society, including tourism sector. With the advantages from the application of information technology, digital transformation is considered as "lever" to help the tourism sector develop sustainably. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Deputy Director of provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (DoCST) said that digital transformation has very important meaning for tourism sector. In order to implement digital transformation, provincial DoCST has established a Steering Committee for Digital Transformation and set up a general digital transformation plan of the sector. Leaders of the department have paid more attention to digital transformation in the field of tourism in order to serve the development of tourism in the 4.0 era.

Just downloading the Binh Duong tourism app to their smart phones, tourists can find out all relevant information about Binh Duong tourism

Over the past time, in order to carry out digital transformation, provincial DoCST has directed relevant units to perform a number of tasks, initially bringing positive results. In addition to building Binh Duong tourism website, the department has also put the Binh Duong tourism app into operation to provide all information about Binh Duong tourism to serve visitors ‘needs. The construction of the tourism app is considered as a bright spot of Binh Duong tourism.

The tourism app will provide visitors and those who want to find out information related to Binh Duong tourism such as accommodation, tourist sites, entertainment services, guide maps ... After a period of operation, the tourism app has been very interested by residents and visitors. As of now, the tourism app has welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors and about 800,000 turns downloading it.

In the system of tourist guide map, provincial DoCST has also directed provincial Tourism Promotion Center to build a 360-degree image attached to the map so that visitors can find out about places they want to go. In addition, tourism publications are also digitized with QR codes to facilitate tourists ‘needs of searching information when they come to Binh Duong. In particular, the province’s tourism digitization has been shared on the database of provincial Intelligent Operation Center (IOC) and is highly appreciated by the IOC.

Nguyen Duc Minh, Director of provincial Tourism Promotion Center said that over the past years, the center has gradually used information technology in tourism promotion. In addition to the Binh Duong tourism app, the center is now assigned to manage and exploit the website dulichbinhduong.org. vn. This is a website that integrates a variety of features and utilities to support tourism activities such as electronic tourist map, reception of suggestions, reflections and comments from visitors. In addition, the center has also tapped social networking sites Facebook, Zalo as one of the effective and popular information dissemination channels.

Smart tourism development

On the basis of the results achieved in the implementation of digital transformation in the field of tourism over the past time,  provincial People's Committee has just issued the Plan No. 3472/KH-UBND to implement a project on applying technology of Industry 4.0 to develop the local smart tourism. The goal of the plan is to develop smart tourism in the direction of professionalism, quality, and modernity, meeting innovation requirements; improving the capacity and efficiency of State management of tourism, making tourism get an important economic sector of the province, ensuring sustainable development and international integration.

After having the above plan, provincial DoCST is reviewing relevant contents to effectively implement the plan in the coming time. According to Mr. Phong, this plan is very important and is the next premise for provincial DoCST to continue digitalizing tourism on the 4.0 platform. On the basis of the sector's general promotion plan, related to digital transformation tourism in the coming time, the sector has proposed a number of tasks. Particularly, important tasks can be mentioned such as building a tourism digital map, collaborating with provincial Museum to build up a smart museum and building up a common database to integrate information, report data of tourism units as well as branches of the department and other relavant sectors to have data linkages to serve the assessment of tourism data more accurately.

“The reality over the past time has proven that digital transformation is an inevitable development trend of the tourism sector. This is because in the 4.0 era, most of the promotion, introduction and customer connection activities are done on digital platforms. We will further promote relevant activities to promote products and connect customers on this platform to attract more and more tourists to Binh Duong towards sustainable tourism development", Mr. Phong said.

Reported by Hong Thuan-Translated by Kim Tin