The future is now in Viet Nam – specifically, tourism services around the country have digitally transformed to meet the needs of an always-online target market. Over 60% of domestic tourists in Viet Nam book hotels and tours online, while over 75% of international tourists use these services, reports the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM).
“This change in the global tourism market requires tourism authorities, travel enterprises, and destination management organizations to adopt a different approach, to better adapt to the new context,” Mr. Hoang Quoc Hoa, Director of the Tourism Information Technology Center under the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) tells us.
While the transformation is by no means complete, many tourist destinations have made significant progress, from eticketing at Hanoi’s most important cultural destinations to cities like Da Nang releasing their own mobile apps.
VNAT’s own initiatives have gone a long way in supporting national digital transformation in the tourism sector – including (but not limited to) a national tourism app for tourists and digital payments. We asked Mr. Hoang what to expect in Viet Nam’s changing digital tourism landscape, and how their projects are meeting the needs of today’s always-online digital tourists.
Can you explain the main objectives behind the push for digital tourism in Viet Nam?
Nowadays, tourists’ behaviors have changed a lot due to the Internet. Searching information, booking services, payments, connecting people, sharing memories and experiences… all of these can be done online. They prefer using mobile and smart devices during their trips. Their changing preferences must be met by digitalizing the tourism industry.
COVID-19 has also been a major factor: it has rapidly accelerated digital transformation in the tourism industry over the last three years. The COVID interruption required industry players to apply online communications more than ever before. Digital tourism platforms were indispensable to this shift.
This change in the global tourism market requires tourism authorities, travel enterprises, and destination management organizations to adopt a different approach, to better adapt to the new context.
Therefore, we’ve set these main objectives for digital transformation in tourism:
- Supporting state management in the tourism sector: Tourism authorities at central and local levels need efficient tools that support their decision making, development strategies, marketing campaigns, and product building plans;
- Supporting tourism business activities: Tourism business players need an ecosystem that supports them to approach customers, introduce their products and services, connect with relevant service suppliers, reduce operational costs; and
Improving the visitor experience: Digital transformation should help tourists even before, during and after their trips comprehensively.
What challenges does Viet Nam currently face in its tourism sector, and how will digital solutions address them?
Post-COVID-19, the global tourism industry has been facing severe challenges, including business disruption, re-direction of targeted markets, and a change in mindset and behavior of tourists, among others.
Our tourism industry fully re-opened to international visitors on 15 March 2022. Our most important task now is to strengthen tourism marketing, reconnect with targeted customers and promote Viet Nam as a safe and attractive destination in the world.
E-marketing is a key part of the overall campaign. We have developed a wide range of digital platforms including websites, social networks, emails, newsletters, and smart applications. These e-marketing channels have effectively contributed to promoting Viet Nam’s tourism brand worldwide.
On the other hand, new tourism trends post-COVID-19 require the development of new products that fit new tastes and demands.
Digital tourism can contribute to fulfilling the demand by offering impressive virtual reality tours. Different technologies can be applied such as AR, VR, VR 360, 3D Mapping, Big data, etc.
The adaptation to digital tourism is not merely about technology application, but a re-direction in business model which places tourists at the center. Digital transformation should provide tourists with an enjoyable and seamless experience; while offering them more personalized, convenient and safe travel options.
What digital tools or apps have already been launched, or will be launched soon, to enhance the tourist experience in Viet Nam?
In the era of smart tourism, tourists are using digital tools more than ever before. We try to support tourists comprehensively before, during and after the trips. Therefore, in the last three years, we have been focusing on developing smart tools for tourists.
Our new Viet Nam Travel application (Google Play/Apple Store) is integrated with useful features to help tourists with information about destinations, tour operators, accommodations, digital tourist maps, online booking and payment for tourist services, among others. Tourists can use the Viet Nam Travel application to inform functional authorities about quality of services by sending comments, photos or video clips. This is a feature we have developed to protect legal benefits of tourists.
The Viet-Smart Travel Card enables users to make cashless payment for tourist services.
Visitors can use our Multi-media Guide on internet-connected smartphones to explore different destinations. The Multi-media Guide will introduce information about tourist spots, relic sites, museums – using text contents, audios, video clips, and photos.
We encourage tourist destinations to apply this Multi-media Guide to enrich the visitor experience and resolve the shortage of tour guides, especially in the peak season.
A new digital ticketing system helps visitors easily buy tickets online and simply scan QR code at the entry gates, reducing waiting times in queues. For tourist sites, it helps transform entirely the traditional management process of selling and checking entry tickets to a new and effective manner.
How is augmented reality being used to promote tourism in Viet Nam, and how successful are the present efforts?
Augmented reality (AR) in particular and other advanced technologies in general are becoming increasingly popular in Viet Nam.
Thanh Hoa applied AR to introduce prominent tourist spots in the province; Temple of Literature (Hanoi) launched 3D Mapping tour; the Viet Nam Fine Arts Museum (Hanoi) introduced “Virtual Art Exhibition Space”; the Imperial City of Hue brought “Hue Imperial VR Centre” for visitors, among others.
These new products are built on the deep exploitation of the unique cultural and historical values of the monuments themselves, combined with the application of modern technologies, bringing creative and unforgettable experience for tourists.
I think that in the near future, the destinations need to boost these digital products widely for domestic and international tourists. At the same time, they should work closely with tour operators to bring tourists to visit and experience; continue to apply technology in helping tourists find information, buy entry tickets, and share experiences via social media.
Can you share the progress of mobile payments for tourism services in Viet Nam? How easy is it for a tourist to use digital payments on the tourist trails?
Boosting cashless payment is an important direction of Vietnamese Government as a part of the National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with a vision to 2030. Thus, we have developed digital tools for cashless payment in the tourism sector.
These include the Viet-Smart Travel Card and the national tourism application “ Viet Nam Travel” I mentioned earlier; as well as a new “Tourism Management and Business” platform.
The Viet-Smart Travel Card allows tourists to make online payments, purchasing products and services with the Card’s merchants. Furthermore, we have integrated The Viet-Smart Travel Card into the Viet Nam Travel application.
This step enables tourists to make online booking and payment for entry tickets at tourist spots, lodging facilities, air tickets and other tourism services.
The “Tourism Management and Business” platform connects tourism service providers, travel agencies, tour guides, and tourism management agencies at central and local levels, thus creating a new digital environment for tourism management and business activities.
We have developed a contactless payment solution with NFC technology (between a smartphone and the Smart Travel Card), which enables any smartphone installed with the “Tourism Management and Business” platform to become a mobile POS.
We believe that the use of these digital tools will help accelerate digital transformation in tourism activities, including digital payment.
How do you plan to involve local communities and businesses in the digital tourism transformation?
As the Tourism Information Technology Center of VNAT, it is our responsibility to push digital transformation in Viet Nam’s tourism industry.
In the last two years, we organized training courses on digital transformation at nearly 30 provinces and cities nationwide. These training courses had the participation of local tourism authorities, managing boards of tourist spots, travel companies, tourist accommodations, and many other tourist-related services suppliers. Many of these are small and medium enterprises.
Through these courses, we aim at raising awareness of all relevant sides in tourism industry about the vital role of digital transformation. And we show them how to apply VNAT’s tourism digital platforms into their daily business operation, which will help them to utilize their business operation, cut down business costs, and approach potential clients.
Digital transformation can only be successful with the involvement of all stakeholders in the tourism industry. During the operation of VNAT’s digital platforms, it is tourism enterprises, tourism authorities, tourists, local communities who create digital data. We consider digital data as the core of digital transformation.
Especially, thanks to the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in the last 2 years, we organized five training courses on application of ASEAN Tourism Standards (ATS) in Viet Nam, with the participation of hundreds of tourism businesses from many cities and provinces. We also launched a website to promote ASEAN Tourism Standards in Viet Nam, as a part of the ADB’s project.
In the future, we will continue to organize training courses at other localities in the country.
Viet Nam’s digital platforms are ready! The involvement of local communities and businesses is essential to form an ecosystem of smart tourism in the whole country.
