Forum "Digital transformation to promote tourism" by the Vietnam Tourism Association in coordination with the Vietnam E-commerce Association took place in Hanoi on the morning of September 30
Taking place at 8:00 am on September 30 at Golden Lake Hotel, B7 Giang Vo, Hanoi, the forum 'Digital transformation to promote tourism development' was attended by Government leaders, Central Economic Committee nursing; Leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Leaders of Ministry of Information and Communication, Vietnam Tourism Association and Vietnam E-commerce Association.
In addition, the forum was also attended by representatives of the American Travel Association (ASTA); Japan Travel Association (JATA) representative; The world's leading technology expert from Google, Facebook, Booking.com and international visitors participating online; Association and tourism businesses; television and press agencies; with many resort, travel and hotel businesses.
Follow the event livestream here.
The forum consists of two sessions. In the first session, the speakers will present general issues such as implementing digital transformation programs in tourism, application of information technology in world tourism, online travel - tourism trends. Global travel, the CoVid-19 epidemic with new challenges in the tourism industry. In the second session, the speakers will present about the digital transformation program in Vietnam, the trend of IT application in travel, tourist accommodation and booking, destination management with direct tourism. route and application of information technology in tourism services. Event developments will be continuously updated to readers.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - President of Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) delivered the opening speech
In 2020, the CoVid-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented disaster to the world, the damage caused by CoVid-19 is extremely great both in human life and the world economy, especially tourism. . According to the forecast of the world tourism organization UNWTO, the Covid-19 pandemic could cause damage to tourism by 2020, reducing 1 billion international visitors, losing USD 1000 billion. Vietnam tourism also suffered great losses due to Covid-19. According to the Vietnam Tourism Association, in 2020, CoVid-19 makes international visitors to Vietnam decrease by at least 70% compared to 2019, Domestic visitors decreased 50%, overseas visitors decreased 85%, revenue (inbound and domestic) decreased over 61%.
Under the drastic direction of the Party and Government, Vietnam always managed to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Vietnam Tourism industry has actively created, strongly implemented the program to stimulate tourism demand whenever conditions permit, partly overcoming the consequences of the CoVid-19 epidemic. However, the epidemic of CoVid-19 was unpredictable and easily broke out again. Therefore, the restoration and development of tourism while going hand-in-hand with CoVid-19 epidemic prevention cannot be quickly effective.
One of the biggest difficulties in restoring tourism is the measures of social isolation, isolation, and border closure on demand for epidemic prevention. In this context online economic activities have had strong growth opportunities. In the first 6 months of 2020, many online businesses have grown by 50-200%. Thus, the application of new technology has proved its superiority in overcoming the consequences of CoVid-19 in particular and promoting economic development in general.
Tourism is a service industry, associated with all social changes, with human needs. Tourism is a conditional industry to apply technologies related to services directly serving the needs of people. Around the world, tourism in many countries has been undergoing digital transformation, making tourism a digital economy. Combined with e-commerce, with sharing economy, tourism has gradually changed towards a smart economy. To achieve the above goal, the first step is to implement a digital transformation program. Vietnam Tourism Association in collaboration with Vietnam E-Commerce Association organized a forum "Digital transformation to develop tourism in Vietnam". The forum took place on the morning of September 30, 2020 at Ho Vang Hotel, Hanoi and had the direct participation of more than 200 delegates and online participation of tourism associations and tourism businesses in the provinces. , city.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Member of the Central Committee of the Party, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism affirmed "It is necessary to create vectors in the same direction, both repel epidemics and promote digital transformation in tourism and economic development". It can be said that the strong impact of the pandemic, Vietnam's tourism in particular and the whole world in general has been heavily affected, how to revive in this context is a difficult question for all levels of industry. . Mr. Nguyen Van Hung said that the Vietnam Tourism Association in coordination with the E-Commerce Association organized the forum today is one of important directions and solutions to contribute to the recovery of the tourism industry. From the perspective of the Party and State leadership, tourism is an integrated economic sector with a close interaction relationship with many industries, attached to trade, transport ... When other industries are affected, tourism Calendar is also affected according to and vice versa.
In the current context, according to the policy of the Party and Government, digital economic development is the first priority. The Politburo issued Resolution No. 52-NQ / TW dated September 27, 2019 on a number of guidelines and policies to actively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development. firm. Accordingly, the five areas that currently need to focus on include: promoting digital technology, smart tourism destination management, information systems with a tourism database to create interaction with other organizations, and call businesses to respond to create innovation in digital transformation, spread digital technology to all levels and branches to support the development of the tourism industry. Facing the impact of CoVid-19 requires the tourism industry to operate more urgently and drastically.
In the coming time, we hope that tourism associations and communities will combine to create strength for disease prevention and economic development together. The goal is to turn the risk into danger: to restart the stimulus package for the second time, Vietnam becomes a safe tourism destination. According to Hung, in the next 10 days, a safe tourism application will be launched to help promote Viet Bam tourism to international friends, contributing to socio-economic growth.
Digital economy plays an important role in tourism development
Mr. Vu The Binh - Standing Vice President of Vietnam Tourism Association gave a speech at the Forum "Digital Transformation for Development of Vietnam Tourism". Accordingly, according to official reports of the World Tourism Organization UNWTO, the damage caused by Covid-19 to international tourism in the first and second quarters of 2020 is as follows:
International tourists in the first 6 months decreased 65% (June-93%), equivalent to 440 million visitors; economic loss is 460 billion USD, 5 times the damage of the global financial crisis in 2009.
UNWTO forecasts 3 scenarios of World Tourism with reductions respectively 58%, 70%, 78%. The situation in the first 6 months of 2020 shows that World Tourism currently following scenario 2 is a decline of about 70%, global international tourism (export) damage is estimated at about 1000 billion USD.
For Vietnam Tourism, international visitors to Vietnam in the first quarter, Vietnam welcomed 3.7 million. Due to the closure of the border, the remaining 3 quarters were basically no international visitors. Therefore, international visitors in 2020 will only reach a maximum of 30% compared to 2019 (at least 70% loss). Domestic visitors: have deployed the first stimulus program (from May to July 2020) and will continue to deploy stimulus phase 2 (from October to December 2020). However, up to the whole year, the number of domestic tourists only reaches 50% compared to 2019. - Outbound international visitors from March 2020 basically do not have Vietnamese tourists traveling abroad.
The loss from outbound business is estimated at 85%. - Tourism revenue in 2019 reached 755,000 billion VND, with the expected number of tourists as above, Vietnam's tourism revenue in 2020 (inbound and domestic) will only reach about 300,000 billion VND (61% loss compared to 2019).
Mr. Binh said that Covid-19 showed that tourism must change. The danger and unpredictability of Covid-19 has caused the behavior of tourists to change in the direction of emotion, difficult to judge, change continuously, abnormally ... sometimes the business can not satisfy. Therefore, only when enterprises have information system about customers, products and services, propose solutions, calculate costs, operate on the basis of analyzing data in a new scientific way. can meet the needs of customers. This shows that only DNDLs implementing digital transformation can meet this need.
Digital transformation contributes to corporate restructuring towards computation, compactness, optimal database operation, building a modern management model, automating step by step in some stages. At the same time, digital transformation helps to renew personnel, strengthen the link between departments and units in the enterprise, and build a database to increase analytical and confidentiality (customer data, partners, products,…).
In terms of business performance, it helps to expand markets, improve customer experience, improve customer experience as well as departmental productivity, increase sales and profits. Technologies used in the digital transformation of the tourism industry can refer to Mobile Technology, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality (AR / VR), AI- Artificial intelligence, Block chain and E-commerce.
The basic content of the digital transformation program of the tourism industry is to build a travel data platform and a digital technology system to automate the processes of providing products and services to tourists, and managing monitoring, ensuring security and safety in the process of serving tourists, improving service efficiency, increasing labor productivity, bringing high values to businesses.
The world is entering Industry 4.0, in which the development of artificial intelligence, modern technologies, new materials has changed from perception, knowledge, to all aspects of the society. festival. Tourism is an economic sector associated with social life, so it is necessary to go ahead in the application of modern technology in its activities. The sensitivity and dynamism of Vietnamese people, digital transformation will receive the support of the tourism organizations, contributing to the rapid development of tourism and tourism, becoming a key economic sector of the country.
"Social networking platform in tourism development"
At the Forum, Ms. Nguyen Anh Nguyet - Director of Public Policy of Vietnam, Facebook Group made a speech with the content that "travel" and "vacation" are two strong trends after Covid translation. -19. Facebook's late 2020 service trends survey in Vietnam showed that 86% of consumers intend to reward themselves and 87% intend to share and give gifts to relatives. Thus, after the Covid-19 epidemic, tourism and relaxation are the biggest priority of consumers when asked about service trends and in which Facebook is the leading advertising channel for travel and travel. In May this year, Facebook launched the Facebook for Vietnam campaign - Facebook for Economy.
In addition, Facebook and Vietnamese travel agencies participated in the recording of the clip "Immense Vietnam" with the participation of many famous artists to promote tourism after Covid-19. The clip has received millions of views and thousands of shares in domestic tourism recovery and development.
In addition, Facebook also cooperated with Vietjet to launch the program "Immense Vietnam - Fly Green with Vietjet" to catch up with the trend, promote domestic tourism recovery and development. Not only that, Facebook also responded to the dual goal of repelling epidemics, economic development, and launching the program of Vietnam Vitality. In the near future, Facebook plans to implement the project "Video for Vietnam" to promote tourism after Covid-19.
Digital transformation: Fundamentally changing global tourism
Ms. Nguyen Tram, Google's Vietnam - Laos and Cambodia director, said that according to a survey at the end of August, Vietnamese people were the most optimistic about tourism trends in Southeast Asia (24%). In the context of limited tourism, Vietnamese people turn to online destinations with online videos that spark their travel inspiration. The reputation of the top Vietnamese travel agency is important, and price is secondary. Therefore, travel companies need to advocate implementing programs to promote and make the most perfect tourist trip, suitable for all subjects, including forms of digital transformation and application of technology. new to optimize the experience.
According to Ms. Tram, tourism businesses can promote the revival of tourism through three main ways: Celebrating the national beauty in the world, Training digital skills and Promote tourism to tourists with Project honoring national beauty: Google Arts & Cultures, Google Search. You can refer to the model of the Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue - AR / 3D and promote Vietnam tourism with Youtuve: Google Adventure Vietnam 2019.
Following the program was an open forum on the topic of Digital Transformation in tourism development coordinated by CEO Vinalink - Mr. Tuan Ha and the participation of Ms. Dang Tuyet Dung - Visa Director in Vietnam and Laos, Mr. Ngo Minh Duc - Gotadi President, Mr. Nguyen Van Ha - CEO Hahalolo and Mr. Doan Quoc Tam - CEO of FTC. The forum took place very excitingly and received an enthusiastic response from the audience. The speakers questioned and discussed technology trends applied in the tourism sector and the efficiency and future of digital transformation in the smoke-free industry. Most of them believe that digital transformation is an urgent requirement in the present time with the shift in spending habits, accessibility and experiences of tourists.
At the forum opening seminar No. 2 by Mr. Vu The Binh, Standing Vice President of VITA, together with the guests, they discussed in more detail about digital transformation in Vietnam tourism. The guests included Mr. Nguyen Quyet Tam - CEO of VietISO, Mr. Kendall Nguyen - Managing Director Luxstay, Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh - CEO Toan Dung Media and Mr. Tran Manh Cuong, Training Officer of Sapo.
The guests have heated discussions about how businesses have adopted digital transformation systems in business and tourism promotion. According to Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, digital marketing is the trend of the tourism industry and will reshape the tourist approach in the new era. Digital transformation in accommodation and travel is a necessary move, according to Kendall Nguyen, with experience from building a management ecosystem and homestay business in Vietnam.
Mr. Vu The Binh, VITA Standing Vice Chairman closed the forum, according to him, the Vietnam Tourism Association is planning to establish a club so that tourism businesses can exchange and refer to multi-channel digital technology solutions.
The event ended successfully.
