Tourism forum aims to seek ways to lure visitors

The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and the Hanoi Tourism Department will jointly hold a national forum on tourism in April in the capital to discuss how to draw tourists in the future.

The Golden Bridge in Sun World Ba Na Hills in Da Nang City, which is among 100 top destinations in the world selected by the Time magazine

“While waiting for the opening of doors to international tourists, the tourism sector this year will focus on the domestic market,” said VITA Vice Chairman Vu The Binh.

“The forum will gather tourism enterprises and localities throughout the nation to connect and discuss ways to develop domestic tourism," he added.

He said some localities have used promotions to try to win customers but in early 2021, a third of domestic travel agencies no longer wanted to exploit international routes and 90 percent of tourism enterprises stopped or reduced their operation scale.

“The tourism sector has run out of power to promote tourism,” he said.

Binh explained that the forum will offer a chance for participants to connect services and create new products to lure visitors.

After the forum, the annual Vietnam International Travel Mart will be held between May 5 and 8.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, demand for searching information on domestic destinations has sharply increased recently, especially as Vietnam basically controlled the COVID-19 pandemic. Domestic travel activities have resumed in almost all provinces and cities nationwide.

Though demand for airline information from domestic tourists has not increased much recently according to statistics from the Destination Insights tool by Google, searches for short trips in nearby destinations rose markedly in March.

Binh noted the statistics show that tourists now prefer short trips to near places by their own vehicles and avoid public transportation due to fear of the virus./.

VNA