A teleconference was held on January 18 to review a project on assisting the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) in building a fund for tourism development and improvement of destinations’ competitiveness.

At the event, the TAB and the Private Economic Development Research Board (Board IV) reported the results of a pilot project on building the 2021 Vietnam Tourism Competitiveness Index (VTCI).

The project has received financial and technical support from the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam since 2019.

In 2019, the VTCI was announced at the Vietnam Tourism High-level Forum with the pilot evaluation results in five destinations, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam.

In 2020-2021, the EU Delegation continued assisting 15 Vietnamese cities and provinces in assessing competitiveness of tourist destinations based on different criteria. It will send the index to the TAB and the Board IV early this year for further development.

The VTCI was built on a system of over 70 different indicators related to tourism competitiveness based on the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said announcing the result of the VTCI is a necessary preparatory step to revive tourism in the near future.

In the past two months, Vietnam welcomed nearly 8,000 foreign visitors under a pilot project, which was part of efforts to re-open tourism market in safe adaptation with the pandemic./. 

VNA/VNP