On December 11, 2020, Tourism Promotion Organization for Asia-Pacific (TPO) chaired by Mr. Kim Soo-Il, TPO’s Secretary General, successfully organized a webinar with participants from 07 member cities including Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, Da Nang, Da Lat, Bac Ninh and Vung Tau, and the representative guests who were Mr. Tran Trong Kien, Chairman of Tourism Consulting Council, Mr. Ly Xuong Can, Tourism Ambassador, and those from Quang Ninh, Long An, My Tho, Son La, and Quang Nam. The webinar consisted of two sections. Section 1 was moderated by Hai Phong focusing on impacts of COVID-19 to tourism and implementation of tourist recovering measures applied at the city members in Vietnam; Section 2 was presided by Ho Chi Minh City focusing on ideas exchange among the city members in Vietnam with regard to project “TPO Tourism Network” proposed by TPO and promotion methods on medias for local tourism development.
Opening remarks of H.E. Vietnam’s Ambassador to South Korea, Mr. Nguyen Vu Tung, TPO Secretary General, Mr. Kim Soo-Il, Tourism Ambassador, Mr Ly Xuong Can, Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Jo Dal-ryeo. Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs.
Opening the webinar, Mr. Kim Soo-Il, TPO’s Secretary General, expressed sharing of TPO about difficulties caused by COVID-19 to tourism of cities and provinces in Vietnam during the year of 2020, unity of TPO and the city members in researching and proposing solutions for tourism industry recovery. After Mr. Kim Soo-Il’s speech, the recorded remark of Mr. Nguyen Vu Tung was shared on fruitful cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea in various fields including tourism with increasing number of Korean citizens visiting and doing investment in Vietnam. In 2019, for instance, there was above 4.9 million tourists from South Korean to Vietnam. Also, South Korea has been one of attractive destinations of tourists from Vietnam. The two aforementioned facts did make a great contribution to Vietnam – South Korea strategic partnership and enhance cultural exchanges of the two countries’ people.
Mr. Jo Dal-ryeo, Deputy Secretary General of TPO, reported on TPO’s activities in 2020. Notably, due to impact of COVID-19, many programs and activities scheduled by TPO were postponed and replaced by virtual meetings organized between TPO and city members at different countries, such as the TPO Webinar in July of 2020, online launching ceremony of new city member Vientiane of Laos in September 2020, or online meetings of city members in Indonesia, Malaysia, China recently.
Mr. Jo Dal-ryeo, Deputy Secretary General of TPO reporting on 2020 activities done by TPO. Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs
Following the report of TPO’s Deputy Secretary General, Director of Projects Team of TPO, presented the proposal project of establishing TPO tourism network (TTN) in order to boosting connection among the city members and enterprises having business partnership with TPO, enhancing sharing and interactions in touristic information advertisement on technology platform among the city members. Discussions among the city members were shared in section 2 moderated by Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. Cho Jae-dong, Director of S.E/Projects Team introducing TTN.
Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs.
At Section 1 under the topic “Measures for tourism management amidst the COVID-19 pandemic” presided by Hai Phong, Mr. Tran Trong Kien, Chairman of Tourism Consulting Council, had a presentation on impacts by COVID-19 to the tourism across Vietnam, signals on the domestic tourism industry recovery, researched statistics reflecting changes in tourist business operation in the country amongst the pandemic. Specially, Mr. Tran Trong Kien informed shifts in psychology of tourists, factors influencing tourist choices, tour booking methods, times for tourism, etc. and trend of domestic tourism during this current period.
Section 1 focusing on measures of tourism management amidst the COVID-19.
Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs.
After the presentation of Mr. Tran Trong Kien, representatives from city participants of Vietnam informed current impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the tourism’s contribution to local economies, and sharing measures applied at localities to get recovered the tourism through stimulus for effective domestic tourism, such as the linking program managed by Ho Chi Minh City with 40 other cities and provinces in the field of tourism, or incentive packages provided by Da Nang and Quang Ninh in implementing discounts for entrance tickets at certain sightseeing spots at their localities for domestic tourists attraction.
Hai Phong Department of Foreign Affairs of Hai Phong City moderated Section 1 with participation of several member cities. Photo: Hai Phong Department of Foreign Affairs
At Section 2 on “Discussion and Proposal” moderated by Ho Chi Minh City, the city members of TPO shared opinions regarding the project TTN proposed by TPO. The aforementioned Webinar for the city members at Vietnam was a channel for enhancing connection among the city members in tourism, contributing to enhancement of further cooperative activities among the cities in the non-smoke industry that is considered as a strength and a source to the local budget./.