Vietnam to promote events

HANOI, 2 June 2014: Vietnam will up the pace of its marketing in the lucrative area of events focusing on three major cities, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
It identified Ho Chi Minh City; Hanoi and Danang as the destinations that could grab a larger market share of global events.
Events related tourism can deliver profits six times higher revenue than mainstream tourism. It is estimated that each MICE tourist from Europe spends US$700 to US$1,000 per day and an Asian over US$400 per day.
However, most of Vietnam’s events business is coming from Asia and this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Event tourism has grown 20% annually since 2008 and includes hosting exhibitions, conventions, incentives and corporate meetings on various scales from international to individual company events.
Major destinations include Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, plus the port city of Danang, but the world heritage sites of the former capital of Hue, the beach town of Nha Trang in the central region, and the southern resort island of Phu Quoc are catching up.
Vietnam hopes to accelerate growth in the events market and catch up with Thailand, which until protests in 2013 and 2014 and the recent coup was a leader in the region.
The main challenge is to improve infrastructure, raise the standard of hospitality services and establish more nonstop flights from source markets.
Both the Vietnam National Convention Centre in Hanoi and the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in HCMC are capable of handling large events, but more five-star hotels are needed and specific hospitality services and the service mindset needs improvement to make it more competitive with Thailand’s high standards.
But the moves are being made and as long as Thailand fails to stabilise its political environment and establish a mature democracy, its neighbours will benefit.
The country also needs to add a MICE tourism association similar to what TICA accomplished in Thailand before the government established TCEB a state body that spearheads promotions for events (often called MICE).

Sourced: ttrweekly