Digitalization drives tourism recovery

Nguyen Trung Khanh, chairman of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT), said it has joined hands with domestic and international partners to apply advanced technologies in tourism promotion activities.

Two years ago, the tourism authority collaborated with Google to launch "Wonders of Vietnam", an online exhibition project as part of Google Arts & Culture (GA&C) that allows everyone to explore art, history and the wonders of the world.

Featuring 35 stories and over 1,300 sumptuous photos of iconic sites, historical heritage, nature, cuisine and culture of central Vietnam, the project is an important part of Google's overall support of the local tourism industry, which was badly affected by pandemic-related travel restrictions.

With initial support from Google, VNAT has continued to carry out a communications campaign with a series of videos themed "Vietnam: Travel to Love" on YouTube, alongside with various activities to popularize Vietnamese tourism on websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Zalo and Viber.

Seeing the significance of digital transformation to tourism development, many cities and provinces have worked to renew marketing strategy as well as build new products to better meet tourists' demand.

Most recently, authorities in the northern highlands town Sa Pa inaugurated a center for supervision and management of smart urban areas, which pilots the use of 3D technology to provide virtual tourism information and services of local tourism sites for visitors, local residents and businesses.

With support of the 360 Virtual Reality (VR 360) technology, a virtual tour was carried out for the first time in the northwestern region in the end of 2020, allowing visitors to immerse themselves fully within a virtual space of Moc Chau tourism site.

From the outset of the year, the number of searches of Vietnamese tourism grew from 11th fastest rate to 7th globally, and Vietnam was the only Southeast Asian country in the top 10, according to data from Google’s Destination Insights.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung attributed the rise to the tourism's efforts to digital transformation, describing it as an effective tool to nudge Vietnamese destinations closer to international friends.

However, he said, there are several challenges to the digital transformation process, which include a shortage of human resources and modern technologies and incomplete digital infrastructure.