(TITC) – On 27th December 2022, in Ha Noi, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) organised a Consultation workshop on certification process of ASEAN Tourism Standards and consideration of ASEAN Tourism Awards. The Workshop took place on a hybrid platform.
Giving his remarks to start off the Workshop, Mr. Ha Van Sieu, VNAT’s Vice Chairman stated, the ASEAN Tourism Awards for recognising service establishments and destinations will be evaluated and decided at the Meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers. In the past few years, Vietnam’s service facilities and tourist destinations have achieved several awards. This is the basis for raising the bar of products and services as well as promoting Vietnam’s destinations in the process of ASEAN integration and access to global supply chains.
In the effort to constantly improve the content of quality and services standards of tourist facilities and destinations, and as well as approaching the standard evaluation processes to participate in the ASEAN Tourism Awards, VNAT has organised a consultation workshop for localities and businesses to discuss, provide ideas to the process of developing and evaluating standards and effectively promote Vietnam’s tourism brand, promote ASEAN tourism award-winning destinations and products.
Mr. Vu Van Thanh, Director of the Hotel Department (under VNAT) emphasised during his speech, service quality guarantee, creating beneficial opportunities for the stakeholders to develop sustainable tourism is significantly important for tourism. The demand for good quality products and services by tourists poses a requirement for destination management units, investors and tourism businesses to change their mindset and operating methods, to finally offer suitable products.
The ASEAN Quality Standards developed by 10 ASEAN member countries, set out basic requirements and regulatory frameworks for tourist destinations, tourism products and services, and guide to improve the quality of the ASEAN tourism industry and to build ASEAN into a high-quality tourism destination. Among ASEAN standards, there are 08 sets of standards that have been used as the basis for awarding the ASEAN Tourism Awards at the annual ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF).
The awards include: ASEAN Green Hotel Award, ASEAN Homestay Award, ASEAN Community-based Tourism Award, ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Award, ASEAN MICE Venue award, ASEAN Clean Tourist City Award, ASEAN Spa Services Award, ASEAN Public Toilet Award.
The ASEAN Tourism Awards is the prestigious award of the region, each standard has specific guidance documents.
At the Workshop, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Deputy Director of the Hotel Department (under VNAT) introduced the ASEAN Tourism Standards, certification process of ASEAN Tourism Standards and criteria for assessment and consideration of ASEAN Tourism Awards. Representatives of establishments operating in the field of tourism and award winning establishments shared the experience of registering for the ASEAN Tourism Awards, exchanged experiences on sustainable tourism development orientations, guidelines and procedures for selecting candidates to participate in the ASEAN Tourism Awards, difficulties in the process and solutions to overcome and improve.
Thereby, in order to select candidates for the ASEAN Tourism Awards, the local departments of tourism management base on ASEAN Tourism Standards, encourage and guide units, enterprises and destinations in the locality to registere to claim the awards.
The departments shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the concerned units in, organising the actual survey, evaluation and selection of qualified candidates who fully meet the prescribed standards and send to VNAT for consideration and submit them to the Ministers of ASEAN member states.
In applying the ASEAN Tourism Standards, localities commented and proposed many solutions such as: promote propaganda on the implementation of ASEAN Tourism Standards and ASEAN Tourism Awards to tourism business; regularly update information on the operation, size and influence of businesses to have accurate orientations for units participating in each type of award. At the same time, upgrading infrastructure, organising the implementation and management of the planning, attracting investment projects to develop tourism products. Particularly, it is necessary to strengthen communication and awareness raising for officials and employees in the tourism industry and people about tourism development in the direction of comprehensive growth and sustainable tourism development; raising awareness and responsibility of tourists and residential communities in destinations about protecting tourism resources and environment…
Mr. Dinh Ngoc Duc, Director of the Tourism Marketing Department (under VNAT) indicated, the ASEAN Tourism Awards are organised to honour the value, quality and image of each locality and tourism business establishment. Meanwhile, showing the goal is to attract domestic and international tourists and support the development of businesses. As a result, national tourism promotion as well as propagating the ASEAN Tourism Awards to each unit is particularly important. Local tourism management departments should have a clear and effective communication plan and policy for their localities.
The ASEAN Tourism Awards are the first step and the basis for localities and businesses to advance to international awards such as the World Travel Awards.
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