Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was the host city for this year’s ITE, Vietnam’s biggest travel trade show. Held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre, ITE HCMC showcased a joint tourism marketing effort by the five countries that make the ASEAN region – Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. By Steena Joy
The theme of the 11th International Travel Expo (ITE) at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) ‘Five Countries One Destination’ showcased the five countries in the Greater Mekong Sub region (GMS) as one destination. At the ITE HCMC 2015, the five countries that make up the GMS and linked by the Mekong river – Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia – made a joint effort to develop and promote tourism in the region in a mutually beneficial way. ITE is the region’s largest travel trade show. This effort towards regional solidarity offers many opportunities for information exchange and establishment of long-term cooperation and partnerships to tap the tourism potential of the GMS.
In particular, the bilateral ministerial meetings between Vietnam and ASEAN tourism ministers, organised within ITE were meaningful not only as a new model of cooperation among regional countries through exchanges and connectivity, but also as a precursor to the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of this year. The Vietnam ministry of culture, sports and tourism has signed a bilateral tourism cooperation agreement with Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, laying the foundation to implement specific cooperation activities. The documents focus on exchanging sources of visitors; facilitating their travel, regularly exchanging information on tourism policies and products; supporting one another to join and organise international tourism events; training and upgrading human resources for the tourism sector; setting up Work Groups to effectively carry out common promotion and advertising activities. This signing of the cooperation programmes reflect the commitment of mutual support and effort of these nations in integrating into the ASEAN Economic Community.
The opening ceremony of ITE HCMC 2015 held at the GEM Centre in the historical District 1 of HCMC, was attended by the tourism ministers of all the five countries as well as over 200 international travel agencies and 13 international media agencies. In her opening remarks, Madam Van Thi Bach Tuyet, director of DOT, HCMC and chairwoman of ITE HCMC 2015 Organising committee said, “ITE 2015 aims to promote each country’s tourism potential and strength, establish connection between tourism products and create a common image for the tourism of the five countries – Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. This is also a good opportunity for international travel agencies to get in touch with Vietnamese travel businesses in order to understand the local tourism market and build long-term partnerships for the sake of mutual benefits and common growth of tourism in Vietnam and the region.” She added, “Travel agencies play an important role in the development of tourism in every country as well as in the diversification of tourism products and improvement of tourist services, which is aimed at attracting an increasing number of visitors. Because of that, the presence of international travel agencies at ITE in HCMC provides a great occasion for Vietnamese travel agencies and their international partners to seek opportunities for cooperation in accessing each other’s markets, promoting each other’s products and increasing inbound and outbound travel.”
In her welcome address, Nguyen Thi Hong, chairwoman, HCMC People’s Committee, said, “HCMC has increasingly consolidated its position and role as a special metropolis of Vietnam and is an important international gateway to the region and the world at large.”
The evening also witnessed the seventh Mekong Tourism Alliance Awards which celebrated the brightest tourism stars in the GMS among inbound and outbound tour operators, five star hotels, airlines, resorts and most attractive tangible heritage of the year.
Vietnam is rolling out a tourism strategy based on the theme of Timeless Charm which will focus on four key product lines: cultural tourism, coastal tourism, eco based tourism and city breaks. Supplementary products being developed include weddings and honeymoons, MICE, cruising, spa and wellness, golf and adventure. The opening of Terminal 2 of the Noi Bai Airport and the expressway between Hanoi–Lao Cai is expected to boost tourist numbers. The Government of Vietnam has issued visa exemption for residents from a total of 22 countries and visa on arrival for a host of other nations. At ITE HCMC 2015, Mary McKeon, team leader, of the EU-funded Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism (ESRT) Capacity Development Project Vietnam made a presentation on Vietnam’s tourism vision. She said, “The overall target to 2020 is to develop tourism to be a key economic industry with high professionalism, modern and fairly synchronously-developed tourist infrastructure; and high quality, competitive and diversified tourist products imprinted with unique traditional cultural characteristics.” The project is being implemented by the ministry of culture, sports and tourism as the executing authority, and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is the implementing agency. It aims to build capacities and strengthen the foundation of the Vietnamese tourism sector for socially and environmentally responsible growth.
The three-day event hosted over 200 international and regional buyers and attracted over 23,000 visitors. More than 250 exhibitors from 19 countries and territories, including Brunei, Cambodia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Poland, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, as well as 27 Vietnam provinces participated in the event, cementing its status as one of the fastest growing international tourism trade events in the region.
India as strong source market
India had a strong representation at the show with travel agents from even Tier II cities like Chandigarh, Pune, Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam attending. Vietnam has plans to focus on India as it sees strong potential in tourist arrivals from the country. Speaking at the press conference held during the ongoing ITE HCMC 2015 in HCMC, Dr Ha Van Sieu, vice chairman, ministry of culture, sports and tourism, VNAT, said, “In 2014, Vietnam received around 60,000 visitors from India. We want to increase this number to between 100,000 to 200,000 in 2015. India is a very important target market for us.”
Better air connectivity is expected to help push numbers. Jet Airways already flies directly to the Vietnamese capital and Vietnam Airlines may soon be starting flights from Mumbai and later Delhi.
Commenting on the need to use social media and e-marketing for promoting tourism, Dr Sieu said, “We know the importance of e-marketing and social media in promoting tourism and we want to learn from the experiences of countries like India who has used it to great advantage.”
According to Jayesh Ashar, managing director, Pearl Travels, Pune, “The visit, my first to Vietnam was indeed an eye opener. I found many similarities between India and Vietnam. However, I found the city and the countryside substantially cleaner. I am sure other destinations in Vietnam would be worth a visit – Hanoi, Halong Bay, Nha Trang, etc. The surprise of the trip was the quality of Indian food available in the local restaurants. It was indeed very good. As for ITE HCMC, the Vietnam sellers were worth the visit as talking to them was extremely informative.”