|
Though it is stipulated in the law that managers of domestic travel firm must have at least three year experiences in the field, the provision has never been respected. As a result, everyone can set up travel firms to compete with each other and scramble for clients.
Making business registration… and that’s all
Vu The Binh, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Tourism Association VITA, said all the provisions in the tourist draft law do not mention the domestic travel, and that in order to provide domestic tourism services, one just need to make business registration at the competent agencies.
“Though it is stipulated in the law that managers of domestic travel firm must have at least three year experiences in the field, the provision has never been respected,” Binh said. “As a result, everyone can set up travel firms to compete with each other and scramble for clients.”
Especially, the draft law does not require travel firms to make a deposit, which has disappointed Phung Quang Thang from Hanoitourist. He believes that the easy requirements would not help filter travel firms and choose the most capable service providers.
There are about 1000 travel firms which provide international tourism services. Only 30 percent of the travel firms bring foreign tourists to Vietnam (inbound tours), while the other 70 percent organize tours abroad for Vietnamese (outbound tours).
The draft tourism law only stipulates the measures to manage inbound tours, while it has not shown any investment incentives to inbound tourism, which is considered a type of export that can bring foreign currencies.
Meanwhile, the draft law also does not intend to impose a strict management over outbound tours. Only outbound travelers have to take compulsory insurance policies, while it is not a must for domestic and inbound travelers.
The idea of the watchdog agency is that travel firms are not prohibited travel firms to provide outbound tours, provided that the business activities can be put under control. At present, even the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VNAT does not know how many Vietnamese travelers go abroad every year.
Protecting travelers, how?
Under the current regulations, travel firms have to make a deposit at banks which will be used to solve the arising problems, in case the travel firms get dissolved or bankrupted. However, according to Tran Viet Di, Director of Lang Son travel firm, it’s still unclear if accommodations, tourism sites and carriers have to make deposit
Pham Tien Dung from a travel firm agreed that making a deposit aims to protect travelers in case travel firms get dissolved or meet incidents. However, he said no travel firm can get any dong from the 250 million dong worth of deposit to settle tourism crisis. Therefore, Dung said, even if raising the required deposit levels to 500 million dong or one billion dong, this would not make any significance.
Dung believes that it would be better to require travelers to take insurance policies which would compensate travelers in case of risks or accidents.
At present, tens of state management agencies undertake the duty of managing tourism activities. However, no agency would come forward and claim responsibility when troubles occur.
However, the idea of establishing a tourism police force in charge of protecting travelers from the risks when they are away from home has not been applauded.
Deputy Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Manh Cuong also said that the Ministry of Public Security does not agree on the establishment of the tourism police, because this does not come in line with the law.
|