Illustrative photo (Source:Internet)Hanoi (VNA) – A tourism e-commerce system will help connect customers to travel companies in an easy and convenient way, spurring tourism, as heard a conference on the use of e-marketing in tourism promotion and e-commerce in tourism business in Hanoi on April 14.
Many delegates voiced that Vietnam has not made good use of digital technology in developing tourism.
According to Nguyen Khanh Trinh, Director of the Clever Ads Joint Stock Company, most travel companies have used digital technology to promote their tours, but mainly in the domestic market.
Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said VNAT has seen the far-reaching effects of digital technology and has taken it as a strategic way of developing tourism.
In fact, the sector has created a video to promote Vietnam’s tourism and launched the website tripi.vn where tourists can find anything relating to tourism in Vietnam from booking tours and buying air tickets to booking hotels.
Dang Phan Son, Marketing Director of tripi.vn, said a tourism e-commerce system will help customers reach quality travel companies and products.
Delegates suggested promoting Vietnamese tourism on social networks, like Facebook.
The tourism sector will strive to become a spearhead economy with an average annual growth rate of 11-12 percent by 2020, new Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said the same day.
The sector sets a target of serving 12-13 million foreign arrivals and 48-50 million domestic tourists by 2020.
The minister stressed the need for the sector to exert efforts to build and improve the image of Vietnamese tourism in order to keep pace with other countries in the region.
Vietnam welcomed 2.45 million international tourists in the first three months of this year, up 19.9 percent against the same period last year, while local tourists numbered 18.7 million. Revenues from tourism rose by 21.2 percent year-on-year.
This year, Vietnam hopes to welcome 8.5 million foreign visitors and 60 million domestic travellers, earning a total of 370 trillion VND (16.8 billion USD) in revenue.-VNA
