Vietnam Online Tourism Day 2019 opens

The Vietnam Online Tourism festival 2019 under the theme “The inevitable trend of online tourism” opened in Hanoi on June 26.

A discussion session on the boom of online tourism (Photo: VNA)
A discussion session on the boom of online tourism (Photo: VNA)

The event, co-organised by the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and Vietnam E-Commerce Association gathered the participation of 600 Vietnamese and foreign delegates from the tourism industry.

The event has 20 speakers partaking from State management agencies, associations, local and foreign tourism enterprises, and businesses in the technology sector.

On the opening day, Timothy Hughes, vice president of marketing for Agoda, also presented Agoda’s experiences and vision for the use of technology in tourism.

The Vietnam Online Tourism 2019 also featured various discussion sessions including the boom of online tourism, online tourist behaviour, services to support online tourism, and the application of modern technology and human resources to serve online tourism.

According to a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency, Vietnam’s digital economy has been developing in terms of infrastructure and markets during the last decade. In 2018, the country’s e-commerce growth reached 30%, marking a total retail revenue of US$8 billion.

According to a report released by Google and Temasek, the scale of Vietnam Online Tourism in 2018 reached US$3.5 billion (up 15%). This figure is expected to reach US$9 billion by 2025.

During the event, the Vietnam E-Commerce Association and VITA will sign an agreement to co-operate on training human resources for online tourism.