Institute for Tourism Development Research receives delegates from Bandung Institute of Tourism, Indonesia

   On the 1st November 2018, the Institute for Tourism Development Research (ITDR) held an exchange meeting and experience sharing on tourism development with Bandung Institute of Tourism, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia. The meeting is under the request of Dr. Haryadi Darmawan, Head of the Post-graduate Education Program of Bandung Institute of Tourism. Many questions related to policies, product development strategy and the involvement of concerned stakeholders in tourism execution.

   On the brief presentation on ITDR’s achievements during the process of establishment and development, ITDR showed that its milestones have considerable influences to the breakthrough of Viet Nam tourism in recent years. Bandung Institute of Tourism expressed its interest and shared the similarity in their strategy, objectives and vision of tourism development to 2020. Accordingly, by 2020, it is expected to have 20 million international visitor arrivals. In particular, Indonesia aims to increase the inbound tourists number to 275 million by 2020 as it is much higher than international tourist number. The two countries have common strengths in tourism resource in terms of nature, marine and community-based tourism resources. It is obvious that Indonesia is one of the key competing countries of Vietnam tourism on the industry growth, the world heritage sites and properties, price, and especially their domestic tourism is 25 times higher than international tourism figure. Mr. Haryadi Darmawan and Acep Unang Rahayu, lecturers of the Postgraduate Education Program of the Bandung Tourism Institute, shared that: Annually, Indonesia tourism invested a fund up to 54 million USD for promotion activities.
   At the round-table meeting, delegates shared other issues of mutual interest specifically addressed as follows:
   1. Typical and potential tourist products, including community-based and eco-tourism.
   2. The issue of environment and activities aimed at ensuring the cleanness of tourism environment.
 3. The importance of developing public-private partnerships in promoting, enhancing destination management, organizing national and international tourism promotion events, and improving the quality of tourist experience.
   4. The role of the national tourism administration institutions in promoting and marketing, especially the application of digital marketing.
   5. Price management in tourism business, tax policies applied to tourism business.
   6. Heritage management in big cities such as Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, regulations on investment in heritage sites to ensure the balance between conservation and development.
   The meeting took place in the manner of a speak-out and open exchange. Thus, the two sides noted the general features in the research, national tourism policy management and development of Vietnam and Indonesia. The outcomes of the meeting are the foundation for the two sides to strengthen their cooperation, mutual understanding and lessons learned in enhancing competitiveness and tourism development.

Group photo of the delegates

Chien Thang