A difficult year

Ms. Phan Thi Thang, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, says that 2020 is a difficult year for the tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the number of tourists and tourism revenue plummeted, leading to a steep decline in the growth of the tourism industry, which has a significant impact on the GRDP growth rate of each province and city. The total number of tourists to Ho Chi Minh City only reached about 17 million, a decrease of 66.6% over the same period in 2019; in which international visitors only reached about 1.3 million arrivals (mainly in the first 3 months of 2020), down nearly 85%. The total revenue from tourism was just over 84,500 billion, down 39.6%.

Similarly, the tourism sector in the Mekong Delta also decreased significantly. Mr. Le Thanh Phong, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Mekong Delta Tourism Association, says that the number of tourists to the Mekong Delta region only reached nearly 28.5 million, a considerable reduction of over 38%. The tourism revenue reached 21,879 billion VND, down 48.3%. Travel firms suffer a double impact of reduced tourist arrivals and contract cancellation compensation. Consequently, other sectors such as transportation, accommodation, restaurant ... are all facing difficulties. Some companies have a substantial decrease of 95-100% in the number of visitors and revenue compared to the same period in 2019, so they are either closed or have to change their business type.

Despite facing many difficulties, local authorities and travel firms remain proactive, flexible, and make efforts to recover the smokeless industry, while ensuring safety against the pandemic. By 2020, Ho Chi Minh City's travel firms have built more than 50 tourism stimulus programs from Ho Chi Minh City to the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta. Tourism companies have organized field trips to survey 126 routes, 31 hotels, resorts, homestays, and farmstay in terms of exploiting 3 new tourism programs namely "Non nước hữu tình" (breathtaking nature), "Những nẻo đường phù sa" (alluvial roads), "Sắc màu vùng biên" (the colors of the borderland). They aim to promote the strengths of products specific to each locality and form a special linkage. Currently, tourist agencies coordinate with localities to exploit the provinces of Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre regarding the tourism program of "Non nước hữu tình" (breathtaking nature) while the other two are unavailable due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cooperation agreement for 14 provinces and cities also determines that the Mekong Delta will become the most attractive tourist destination in the country and the region. Moreover, the agreement shows that it is necessary to build a regional tourism brand with the core values of diversity, uniqueness, harmony, sustainability, and the brand identity values of safety, friendliness, hospitality, civilization, liveliness. Besides, it also actively aims at promoting human resource training, enhancing tourism promotion, and calling for investment. However, tourism activities are still in a difficult state due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Orientation and solutions

The year 2021 has posed many challenges for the tourism industry and the linkage between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta. Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Lieu Province, said that it is vital to have a close connection with tourism companies in product orientation. She says, “We must understand the market to provide the right products for the customers, thus promoting the tourism development of the region”. According to many experts, it is necessary to focus on the domestic tourism market to recover the smokeless industry and forecast the situation to timely develop appropriate and effective stimulus programs.

The strengths of each locality are being exploited thanks to the linkage program. In the photo: Dong Thap is promoting tourism through its famous flower village.

Ms. Phan Thi Thang, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, said that travel firms, tourist sites, and tourist accommodation establishments need to evaluate the implementation of regional link products and tourism stimulus programs. Moreover, they need to promptly coordinate with the local state management agencies on tourism to solve the existing problems and avoid breakdowns in the value chain, as well as lack of synchronization in implementation. The regional linkage help team promotes responsibility, proactively grasp the situation, and promptly offers solutions to the People's Committees of provinces and cities in the region. Based on an agreed regional tourism brand, it is necessary to start developing a communication campaign for brand identity, prepare a roadmap to promote international markets, monitor the pandemic situation in key markets, and combine with international data analysis units to timely capture the psychology of international tourists. For countries that already have the pandemic under control, there should be a plan to introduce Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta as safe and vibrant tourist destinations to tourists from these countries. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City needs to maximize its role as a focal point, becoming a destination to receive visitors to and from localities through affiliated tour programs. Furthermore, the linkage program clearly defines key markets such as Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Nha Trang ... to have appropriate promotion and marketing orientation. Large and leading tourism enterprises such as Saigontourist, BenThanh Tourist, Vietravel ... need to build more affiliate programs and efficiently promote series of tourist destinations to encourage other companies to do the same, thus contributing to increasing arrivals to Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, says: “Cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta is a new initiative and model in the management of linkages. This link is becoming more and more practical when we can gather information on tourism development, investment, promotion, tourism human resource development, especially tourism product development. Particularly, Ho Chi Minh City plays a leading role, creating connections and opportunities to attract investment, building infrastructure, creating conditions for businesses to develop, offering visitors new experiences and unique tourism products of the Southern region. However, the pandemic situation is still complicated. Therefore, localities need to focus on destination management, digital transformation and enhance tourism promotion on websites, means of media, travel apps, social networks to spread the tourism image of Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta. Besides, we need to be well-prepared to welcome back international visitors when the pandemic is under control”.

The tourism sector has been facing many difficulties while the COVID-19 situation is still complicated. However, the cooperation in tourism development between Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces, cities of the Mekong Delta show some positive signs. Through the cooperation agreement, local authorities can step by step orient suitable routes and development stages based on the potential of each locality.

The initial outcome may not reach expectation due to many influencing factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this is a potential linkage as there are action plans with specific tasks that are assigned for each member of the regional association committee. These missions include close connection to promptly overcome difficulties, focusing on solving problems and bottlenecks, creating a high consensus of view among localities. This is the foundation for change and leverage for the tourism sector in the Southern region in general and the provinces, cities of the Mekong Delta in particular.