A corner of Ha Long bay, Quang Ninh province (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Twenty travel companies werefined and another had its business licence revoked for 18 months for violating administrativeregulations in travel business activities in 2017, according to the Vietnam NationalAdministration of Tourism.
The firms’ violations were mainly failure to set up and store documents,use of tour guides without labour contracts, lack of tour guides, and having noreport of travel operations to authorised agencies.
During the year, inspectors from the Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism conducted inspections at 55 agencies in seven provinces and cities,namely Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kien Giang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vinh Long, TienGiang and Quang Ninh, which are popular tourism destinations in the country.
A series of measures were also taken to improve the quality of travelservices and human resources; and enhance inter-sectorial coordination and managementwork.
About 13 million foreigners chose Vietnam as their holiday destinationin 2017, a year-on-year rise of nearly 3 million. Meanwhile, the sector served 73.2 milliondomestic tourists. It earned 510.9 trillion VND (22.5 billion USD) from tourismactivities this year.
At a recent meeting in Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head ofthe state steering committee for tourism, asked the tourism sector to improveproducts, accommodation facilities, manpower, while devising appropriatestrategies and plans.
More attention should be paid to quality, he noted, stressing that itmust successfully carry out the plan on restructuring the tourism sector so asto develop tourism into a spearhead economic industry.-VNA
VNA
