Online tourism – new trend for tourists

For this reason, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) and Vietnam E-commerce, along with the Information Technology Agent, under Ministry of Industry and Trade, have organised the first ever Online Tourism Day, in Ho Chi Minh City on July 5.

The event aims to attract the participation of agencies, organisations and businesses to online tourism. It is expected to become a bridge serving to promote the links between tourism enterprises and businesses in related fields, such as Information technology, online marketing, online payment, insurance, destinations and aviation.

Online Travel Day 2017 focuses on four central themes: Online Tourism - an irreversible trend, Online Travel Agents - who is stronger?, Online Tourism - starting from enterprises, as well as tourism development in the digital era.

Discussions will focus on the inevitable development of online tourism, related policies, the impact of IT on tourism, business activities of domestic and international travel agents in online tourism, and the deployment of IT and e-commerce at every travel agency.

Online Tourism Day 2017 is expected to provide a forum for hoteliers, travel agents, restaurants, along with entertainment, transport, and insurance companies, to meet and discuss future business possibilities. State managers will also be able to research online tourism and stay abreast of its current developments.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Deputy Director of VNAT, said that the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) pointed out that in a 2016 report, tourism in the Asia-Pacific region had grown at the fastest rate in the world. Factors such as population, income, mobile technology, and social media have had major impacts on tourism in the region.

However, a shortage of human resources is a major challenge for further development in the immediate future.

The Politburo issued Decree No.08 this year, calling for tourism to become a key economic sector, and the National Assembly passed the amended Law on Tourism in June.

The sector will propose that the government issue policies and solutions in order to develop tourism in the future, with online tourism and new tourism trends in need of attention to make it a key economic sector by 2030.

Global online tourism increased 13.8% in 2016, to US$565 billion. Asia-Pacific and Latin America contributed the most to growth, with North America being the largest online tourism market, although the Asia Pacific region is expected to be the largest online tourism market this year.

Online tourism in many countries is assessed as growing faster than previously predicted. In Southeast Asia, Google have forecast that the scale of online tourism will grow from US$22 billion in 2015 to US$90 billion in 2025.

Tourism has been significantly impacted by IT developments such as mobile technology, cloud computing, big data, the sharing economy, the Internet of Things, and the fourth industrial revolution.