VietNamNet Bridge – Economists have urged
management agencies to simplify the administrative procedures in order to
attract more and more foreign travelers to Vietnam.

The US film studio came to Vietnam to survey the possibility of producing and filming the fourth chapter of Bourne, a global famous television film series, with the acting of Matt Damon

Vietnam has failed to become the
destination of a filming project worth 150 million dollars directed by
Universal Studios, just because of the overly complicated procedures.

The
information has been released by Baron Ah Moo, a senior executive of Indochina Land at a forum held recently.

According
to Baron Ah Moo, the US film
studio came to Vietnam
to survey the possibility of producing and filming the fourth chapter of
Bourne, a global famous television film series, with the acting of Matt Damon.

However, as
it took too much time to negotiate with relevant ministries, Universal felt
that it would be too difficult to get licenses for filming. Besides, the
obstacles in logistics has made the film studio to choose another place for
filming – another South East Asian country.

The filming
project is considered the “golden opportunity” for Vietnam to promote tourism,
especially when this is a famous movie piece, because movies always have big
impacts on the development of the tourism industry. Also according to Baron Ah Moo,
this is really a “regrettable incident”, and it would have been much better if
relevant agencies could have made quick decisions in such cases.

Vietnam’s tourism industry has rapidly
regained the fast growth rate after the global crisis period, with the number
of foreign travelers increasing by 34 percent in 2010 in comparison with the
year before. The upward trend still can be seen in this year with 2 million
foreign travelers having arrived in Vietnam by the end of April, an
increase of 10.5 percent over the same period of the last year.

According
to the General Statistics Office, the hotel, tourism and restaurant business
brought the turnover of 187 trillion dong, or 9.4 billion dollars in 2010,
accounting for 9.5 percent of the total GNP of the year.

According
to the World Travel and Tourism Council WTTC, the tourism industry can create
1.4 million direct jobs in 2011, and another 3.8 indirect jobs.

Despite the
great achievements, tourism firms still believe that the results have still
been far from the potentials of Vietnam.

The tourism
working group of the Vietnam Business Forum has recently made some proposals in
order to help develop Vietnam’s
tourism.

First, the
working group has suggested establishing a tourism consultancy council which serves
as the bridge for the state management agencies and the private sector to
exchange information. The most important task of the council is to heighten Vietnam’s
competitive edge as a good MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences,
exhibitions) destination, by creating favorable conditions for the government
and leaders of management agencies to mobilize resources for the development of
the tourism industry.

Second, the
working group has proposed to follow a reasonable, methodical and consistent
policy in polishing Vietnam’s
image as a good tourism destination. In January 2011, the working group
conducted a survey on marketing the destination point, in order to collect
information from different sources on defining a strategy for Vietnam’s
tourism development.

Third, the
working group believes that Vietnam
needs to minimize the limitations in granting visas to foreign travelers. A
survey has found out that up to 98 percent of polled people said the current
regulations on granting visas are the big obstacle for tourists.

Citing the
case of Thailand, Baron Ah
Moo said there are still too many things Vietnam needs to do to develop
tourism. From mid to the end of 1980 decade, Thailand could attract 5-6 million
foreign tourists a year. After 30 years, the number of foreign travelers to Thailand has
reached 15 million a year, despite the political uncertainties in the country.

He has
pointed out that the success of Thailand
in attracting international tourists (many of them return to Asia
and other far markets) is the result of an open entry policy. Vietnam will
also succeed if it can apply the “visa at the port of arrival” mechanism.

He has
emphasized that the current regulations on granting visas have hindered the
attracting of foreign travelers, especially in persuading travelers to return
to Vietnam
for the second time.

Source: TBKTVN