Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien emphasized that Viet Nam tourism has developed strongly in 2015 - 2019 period. International visitors to Viet Nam increased by 2.3 times from 7.9 million to 18 million; domestic tourists increased by 1.5 times from 57 million to 85 million. The contribution of tourism to GDP also increased from 6.3% in 2015 to 9.2% in 2019. Vietnam tourism competitiveness increased by 12 places, from 75/141 to 63/140 economies.

However, since the beginning of 2020, the Covid-19 epidemic has seriously affected the tourism industry of Vietnam in particular and the world in general. Tourism is one of the industries most severely damaged, leading to a sharp decline in related industries as aviation, accommodation, food and beverage... In 2020, it is forecasted that the number of international tourists to Viet Nam will decrease by 80%, domestic tourists will decrease by 45% and tourism economic loss will amount to 23 billion USD.

In that context, the National conference on tourism is held to assess the situation and discuss directions and solutions to restore the tourism growth. The Minister affirmed that the tourism industry is determined to realize the dual goal of preventing epidemics and developing tourism.

At the conference, many local and business leaders shared the difficulties encountered due to the impact of Covid 19 and proposed the Government to provide taxes, fees, loans support and employment for tourism labors. In addition, localities and businesses have also been very proactive in shifting operations to adapt to the new situation, especially pushing digital transformation to develop smart tourism. The delegates also highly appreciated the tourism stimulus program launched by VNAT and MoCST. They also suggested VNAT continue to coordinate the tourism stimulus programs as well as help localities and businesses to form alliances to push tourism development.

VNAT's Chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh

In framework of the conference, leaders of the People's Committee of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and 5 provinces/cities of the key economic central region have signed an agreement of tourism cooperation.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam highly valued the outstanding performance of Vietnam tourism. He emphasized that, thanks to the efforts of the business and investors, tourism infrastructure and quality of tourism services have been considerably upgraded, contributing to significant improvement of the competitiveness of Vietnam tourism.

The Deputy Prime Minister suggested that the whole Vietnam tourism industry to shake hands to overcome difficulties, recover and develop sustainably.

Tourism Information Technology Center