The development of online tourism in Vietnam is an inevitable trend as the non-smoking industry is strongly affected by technological advances.

Visitors in Hoi An ancient town

The view was shared by almost of delegates attending the Online Tourism Day 2017 held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 5.

Pham Thanh Cong, a representative of Nielsen Vietnam, said global consumers, including those in Vietnam, now tend to use smart phones and tablets to shop online instead of traditional shopping methods.

Meanwhile, tourism is one of the sectors with products drawing most interest from consumers, he noted, adding that due attention to the promotion of tourism images and services on the internet will create considerable effects.

Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said while foreign online tourism websites such as Angola.com and Booking.com are dominating in Vietnam, domestic firms have just began to pay attention to this market share with the appearance of such websites as ivivu.com and gotadi.com.

Many participants said close coordination among agencies as well as financial and policy support to domestic businesses are necessary to improve the competitiveness of local online tourism firms.

Vu Quoc Tri, Chief of Office of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), unveiled that the VNAT has suggested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism build a circular on e-commerce transactions in the tourism industry in order to create legal conditions for online tourism business activities.

The first-ever Online Tourism Day, featuring a number of panel discussions, was organised by the Vietnam E-commerce Association, the VNAT, and the Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. It drew representatives from enterprises providing tourism, restaurant, hotel and air transport services.

VNA