Tourism development: conflict of interest

15:37' 31/07/2007 (GMT+7)

Hoi An ancient town attracts many Japanese visitors but only 8% of the tour guides in the town can speak Japanese. VietNamNet Bridge – Vice head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Pham Tu has told the press that the tourism sector may have to ‘flexibly dodge the law’ to develop and in the long term, the sector possibly has to petition law makers to amend the laws. 16 Korean illegal tour guides expelled Local travel firms may lose Asian markets The tourism sector is facing a very problematic situation – seriously lacking tour guides. In the past, travel firms could ‘make full use’ of different sources of human resources to employ as tour guides but now, they are facing big barriers, which are legal regulations. Pham Tu admitted that there was a fierce contradiction between the development of tourism and administrative rules. Vietnam currently has around 5,750 tour guides, a very modest number. It is more problematic when the number of Japanese tourists coming to Vietnam ranks third of all with more than 50,000 people a year but only 8% of tour guides can speak Japanese. As a result, travel firms have to hire illegal foreign tour guides. The chief tourism inspector also said that tourism inspectors had found 40 illegal foreign tour guides in Hanoi within one month of inspection there and 20 of them had been expelled. According to Pham Tu, Vietnam’s tourism sector is being hindered by many barriers of human resources, infrastructure, administrative mechanism and even serious conflicts of many interests. In terms of human resources, Vietnam has ten schools for tourism, which can’t meet the real need of the tourism market in terms of either quantity or quality. While the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said that travel companies don’t invest in training, travel firms say that if the VNAT can’t do that job how can they? Urgent measures to draw foreign visitors: opening international airports in Hai Phong, Nha Trang and Da Lat; allowing right-handed steering wheel cars from Southeast Asian countries to come to Vietnam; exempting visas for visitors from key tourism markets of Vietnam like European Union member countries, Russia, and Australia; and not organising large-scale and costly festivals; allowing travel firms to employ foreign tour guides. Regarding tourism infrastructure, the system of hotels in Vietnam is small and scattered. The country doesn’t have any hotel which has 1,000 rooms. However, even when investors want to build a big hotel, they can’t find a plot of land that is large enough. The central province of Khanh Hoa currently has 8,000 luxurious rooms but its airport and railway stations are too small. Especially, while the development of tourism requires visa exemptions and environmental protection, Vietnam still maintains the visa mechanism with many tourism markets. The VNAT has many times petitioned to strike this mechanism but it still exists. This is why foreign travelers hesitate to come and return to Vietnam. (Source: Lao dong, Viet Nam Net)