Responsible tourism for sustainable development

The event was organised by the European Union funded - project “Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development" (EU-ESRT).

Discussions were focused on the project’s six year results and plans to continue achievements sustainably based on the principles of responsible tourism.

Sustainable tourism is both a target of and a solution to tourism development, contributing to providing more jobs and alleviating poverty at tourism destinations, said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism at the event.

After six years of implementation, the project has helped increase public awareness on responsible tourism; responsible tourism has become a significant part of Vietnam’s tourism policies and practical activities.

The project successfully carried out the Private-Public Discussion (PPD) mechanism by establishing Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) and Destination Management Operation (DMO), marking crucial progress in the country’s tourism management methods.

The 12.1-billion-EUR project was carried out under the instruction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism from 2011 to November 2016.

It focused on supporting policies and strengthening institutions, developing organisational structure, building an effective private-public cooperation network and raising public awareness of responsible tourism.