The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has recently held a series of conferences to review the implementation of, and discuss the revisions to, the 2005 Tourism Law.
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| Foreign tourists visit Trang An, Ninh Binh province__Photo: Internet |
According to Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the aim of the revision is to create the most favorable conditions for building the non-smoke industry into a spearhead sector while ensuring sustainable development.
Compared to the current law, the revised law would contain new regulations on sustainable tourism, human resources in the hospitality and tourism sector, tourism service quality management, and tourism statistics. The revised law would also add provisions prohibiting outbound tourists from violating the laws of countries of destination. Meanwhile, in order to lure more foreign tourists to the country, the revised law would allow inbound visitors to decide whether to book a whole tour or just part of it, instead of requiring them to buy the entire tour as at present.
Additionally, the current law’s provisions on the Tourism Development Support Fund, tourism promotion, tourism planning, conditions for grant of tour guide’s cards, etc., would be amended.
A noteworthy revision to the current law is the proposal requiring domestic travel firms to apply for a license and make a deposit like international travel agents.
State authorities highly appreciated the proposal, saying that it would help better control operations of domestic travel agents which are flourishing all over the country due to loose regulations of the current law. However, there remain opinions that the proposal seems to go counter to the objective of streamlining administrative procedures that Vietnam is pursuing.- (VLLF)
