The forum took place in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic that has caused great impacts and damages to many industries, of which the tourism industry is most affected, posing the requirement to innovate through the application of digital advances.

 

The forum is an opportunity for tourism businesses to get information about new trends and practices in the application of new technologies in tourism from representatives of leading digital technology coporations such as Google, Booking.com, Facebook, American Travel Association (ASTA) ...

 

Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that the Politburo's Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW dated January 16, 2017 on developing tourism into a key economic sector as well as action plans of the Government and the Prime Minister to implement the Resolution 08 outlined guidelines and plans to promote the development of smart tourism and digital tourism. The Politburo also issued Resolution No. 52-NQ/TW dated September 27, 2019 on actively praticipating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which "digital tourism" is cited as one of the priority industries. The Prime Minister also issued Decision No. 749/QD-TTg dated June 3, 2020 approving the "National program on digital transformation untill 2025, with a vision to 2030".

 

 

The tourism industry is implementing major solutions including: (1) Promoting the application of digital technology in tourism marketing; (2) Improving the efficiency of tourism destination management, developing smart tourism destinations; (3) Developing digital information systems for the tourism industry and applications; (4) Supporting business community to apply digital technology; (5) Raising awareness on the application of digital technology in the tourism industry.

 

The Deputy Minister said that in the near future, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will launch the Safe Tourism Application to serve tourists. This is also a useful tool for digital transformation, stimulating tourism demand and supporting to tourism recover.

 

 

The Deputy Minister highly appreciated the goal of the forum and hoped that experts and businesses would share comments and ideas contributing to the development of smart tourism ecosystem.

 

The forum took place with 2 sessions: Session 1 with the theme "Digital economy and tourism development" focusing on the content of the needs, trends and the ability to deploy digital transformation of global tourism. This session was introduced by leading technology corporations in the world such as Google, Facebook... The delegates also exchanged views on the development of Vietnam's tourism social network and the digital transformation.

 

 

With the theme "Digital transformation in Vietnam tourism", session 2 took place with the content of the application of digital technology by the American Travel Association (ASTA) and the US tourism businesses in during the prevention of Covid-19 epidemic and tourism cooperation between the United States and Vietnam; discussing with businesses in regard to providing technology products in tourism marketing, travel, accommodation...