Attending the Forum were Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha; MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung; MOCST’s Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet; Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Chairman of Vietnam National Authority of Tourism; Mr. Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee; Formers Head of Vietnamese Government and leaders of ministries, branches and localities. The Forum also had the participation of leaders of tourism ministries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar...; Ambassadors of some countries; representatives of PATA, Google Asia-Pacific, Traveloka, Amadeus and speakers, experts, travel businesses, travel agencies, transportation, tourist accommodation establishments, domestic and international organisations.

Giving his opening remarks, MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung emphasised, the Forum is an important event, held in the context of global tourism showing signs and positive recovery results and aiming to celebrate World Tourism Day on 27th September with the theme "Tourism and green investment" - emphasising the role of innovation and digital transformation in promoting sustainable tourism recovery; Vietnam tourism is urgently and actively focusing on implementing Resolution No. 82/NQ-CP of the Government on accelerating recovery and effective and sustainable tourism development.

MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung speaking at the Forum (Photo: TITC)

Resolution No. 82/NQ-CP has identified digital transformation as a key task and solution to promote recovery, development and improve the competitiveness of the tourism industry. This is also a strategic task, requiring resources, time and other necessary conditions, yet it must also start with specific actions and specific goals.

The focal view is to focus on developing smart tourism to improve the capacity and efficiency of state management of tourism, sticking to the motto "businesses and people are subjects, tourists are the centre, products and infrastructure are the foundation, advanced and modern services are the driving force", attracting more international visitors to Vietnam, promoting the increase of domestic tourists; Digital transformation is both a driving force and a boost for the tourism industry, promoting the achievements and opening up a new space and potential for the tourism industry to develop greenly, effectively and sustainably.

MOCST’s Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet at the Forum (Photo: TITC)

Deeply aware of the meaning and importance of digital transformation for tourism development, on the basis of closely following the Government's programmes and projects on national digital transformation, international experience, recently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued under its authority: (1) Digital tourism development projects and plans; (2) Launch of the Digital Transformation Guidance Document in the Tourism Industry, providing a framework to guide overall solutions and the tourism digital transformation ecosystem, the roles of relevant parties and roadmaps and steps, specific tools for implementing digital transformation; (3) Guidance on connecting and integrating into the Industry's digital platforms with the goal of supporting management agencies, localities, destinations, and tourism businesses to implement digital transformation to ensure consistency, synchronise, optimise results, save resources and enhance linkages throughout the Industry; (4) The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has also coordinated with relevant ministries, branches and localities to organise many training programmes and guidance on digital transformation of tourism in provinces and cities nationwide.

Up to now, the tourism industry has also achieved initial results in a number of aspects: (1) Digitization of data on tour guides, international travel businesses, and accommodation establishments nationwide by central and local state management agencies on tourism manage; (2) Form a digital information system about tourist areas, destinations, tourist service facilities and tourists; (3) Develop a number of applications on mobile devices to support and serve tourists to look up information about destinations, tourism products and services, tour commentary automatically translated into popular languages; launched the "Vietnam Travel" application to serve tourists, the "Vietnam Travel Guide" application to serve businesses and management agencies; The Viet - Smart tourism card serving tourists...; (4) Boosting the promotion of tourism applying digital technology, digitising heritage, deploying the digital museum model; (5) Interconnection between state management agencies on tourism from central to local levels and tourism businesses.

Mr. Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee speaking at the Forum (Photo: TITC)

MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung stressed, tourism is a highly integrated industry. The development of technology has changed tourist behaviour. Tourism business and management activities need to take advantage of digital technology achievements to transform models and ways of operating effectively and appropriately, improving competitiveness in the new context. In particular, the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic also requires Vietnam's tourism industry to have flexible solutions to cope with similar crises in the future. High-level Tourism Forum "Digital transformation in tourism development" is an opportunity for the Vietnamese tourism industry to receive advice and recommendations from experts on digital transformation of tourism linked to Vietnam's specific conditions, and to learn from the experiences of other countries.

Mr. Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee said, Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism industry has been proactively transforming digitally, moving towards forming a smart tourism ecosystem with subjects such as tourists, businesses and management agencies with attractive and modern digital tourism products.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Chairman of Vietnam National Authority of Tourism at the Forum (Photo: TITC)

The theme "Digital transformation in tourism development" of the Forum was discussed and clarified through two thematic sessions: "The role of digital transformation in tourism development" and "Digital transformation application solutions in tourism". In particular, the role of digital transformation in tourism development was analysed in depth with the speeches of the Cambodian Minister of Tourism, the Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of Laos, the representative of the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Japan Transport and Tourism Research Institute.

The second session on specific solutions for applying digital transformation in tourism development attracted presentations from international organisations such as "Sharing experiences in implementing the Digital Museum platform to serve tourism promotion" by Google Asia-Pacific representative; “Role of tourism platforms in tourism development” by representative of Traveloka; “Digital transformation solution to facilitate travel for tourists” by Amadeus. Along with that were presentations from Vietnamese businesses such as Vietnam Airlines, Saigontourist, Vietjet on "Digital transformation solutions in the aviation sector to serve tourists"; “Application of digital transformation in tourism business recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic”; “The solution to digital transformation of the aviation sector enhances the tourist experience”.

Speaking at the Forum, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha highly appreciated the organisation of High-level Tourism Forum "Digital transformation in tourism development" and hoped that Tourism would be among the leading industries in national digital transformation. Deputy Prime Minister asked the tourism industry to carry out digital transformation, must have a methodical strategy, to implement with focuses, to create effective changes in management, operation and administration ways in tourism.

Presentation on "Sharing experiences of implementing the Digital Museum platform for tourism promotion" by the representative of Google in the Asia-Pacific region (Photo: TITC)

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