Seminar on “Creative Tourism – Opportunities for Vietnam”

   On September 22nd 2017, a seminar on “Creative Tourism – Opportunities for Vietnam” was held in Hanoi. This is the international cooperation activity between the Institute for Tourism Development Research (ITDR) and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (KCTI). This seminar is meant to deepen the strategic cooperation between the two institutes.

   Attending the workshop was the presence of Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan – Director of ITDR; Dr. Do Thi Thanh Hoa – Deputy Director of ITDR; Dr. Lee Won Hee and Dr. Yu Ji Yun from the KCTI; representatives of Departments of Science, Technology and Environment (Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism); representatives of departments of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism; tourism associations; universities and tourism enterprises.
As the opening remarks, Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan said that tourism was now the fastest growing industry and one of the largest economic sectors in the world. That required countries and businesses to constantly innovate, create and improve the quality of service for the competition and the increasing and diversified demand of tourists. With that in mind, the seminar was organized to create a forum for exchanging information and sharing knowledge about creative tourism, thereby bringing new ideas, innovations and solutions to Vietnam’s tourism, with more and better quality products for domestic and international tourists.

   On behalf of the research team of ITDR, MA. Nguyen Hoang Mai presented that Vietnam had many conditions and opportunities to develop creative tourism such as attractive tourism resources; various traditional cultural values; gastronomic cuisine; beautiful natural sceneries; rapidly developed tourism infrastructure and information technology; young population. The development of creative tourism can contribute to diversify the system of tourism products, increase the value of tourism products; improve the competitive ability; preserving cultural values, enhancing community participation in tourism development; attracting high-end customers; developing a unique travel brand, attracting visitors through social networking effects. Therefore, the research team proposed a number of proposals for the development of creative tourism in Vietnam, such as the need for incentive policies for innovative tourism enterprises, especially small businesses with unique tourism products; organizing fairs, conferences or launching contests for development of creative tourism nationwide.
   Presentations on creative tourism products in the world and in the country were given by Korean and Vietnamese experts with very interesting and useful information. The experts from KCTI presented about: “Characteristics of South Korean Wave and Some Experiences in Developing Wave of Korean Tourism” by Dr.Lee Won. Hee, “Case Study and Application of Performing Arts Tourism in Korea” by Dr.Yu Ji Yun. Representative of Ninh Binh Tourism Department, MA. Quach The Hai, introduced the experience of exploiting the movie set of “Kong – Skull Island” on tourism development in Ninh Binh – a practical perspective, MSc. Pham Ngoc Mai Anh, Chairman of ADT Creative Co., Ltd. introduced the application of technology to smart tourism.
   The participants highly appreciated the presentation, especially the two presentations by Dr. Lee Won Hee and Dr. Ju Ji Yun. Participants also discussed issues such as the need to create creative tourism products that are appropriate to international circumstances and trends, and exploit agricultural tourism potential. The application of technology and science to create creative tourism products is an indispensable and necessary trend to create new products to enhance the attractiveness of Vietnam tourism

Hong Nhung