Specialised
tourism trends like medical tourism, literature, travel, and film studio travel
have existed a long time, but in Vietnam they are still in their infancy.
Medical tourism
Each year
about 100,000 foreigners go to Vietnam for medical treatment, contributing more
than $1 billion of revenues to local hospitals. At the same time, according to
the Ministry of Health, Vietnamese people spent over $2 billion for medical
treatment abroad. Most tourists of this kind design tours for themselves, not
using services of travel agents.
Nguyen
Dinh Anh, Director of the Communications Department of the Ministry of Health,
for foreign patients, the advantages of Vietnamese hospitals is low cost. Some
local hospitals offer hi-tech services at reasonable prices and they are famous
for some kinds of treatments such as thoracic vascular diseases, IVF,
dentistry....
The two
most well-known hospitals among foreign patients are the Medical University
Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue Central Hospital. Asked about the
mechanism for medical tourism, Dinh Anh affirmed that the Ministry of Health
does not license this service. The majority of foreign visitors contacted local
hospitals themselves.
Asking
domestic tourists about the concept of "medical tourism", most of
them could not clearly define it. Some saw the service like bathing with herbs
of Dao ethnic minority in some northern mountainous provinces and mud baths in
Nha Trang as “medical tourism”.
Actually,
the twoservices are the only part of tours in Vietnam that are related to
“healthcare”. Other forms, from massage to acupuncture to organ transplants,
are not included in official tours in the country. Foreign tourists have to
search for the services on the Internet.
Lack of
specific mechanisms for medical tourism has prevented travel firms from
developing this kind of tourism in Vietnam.
Gay tourism
In the
past few recent Vietnamese have been more open-minded but homosexuals still
have to hide their sexual orientation. According to the study on specialized
tourism products for the community of lesbians, gays, bixesual and transgenders
(LGBT) in Vietnam by the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities, 75% of respondents said they chose the form of making
their own tours because they were afraid of stigma when purchasing tours and
traveling in group.
Ho Chi
Minh City, Da Lat, Da Nang, and Nha Trang are the choices of the majority of
domestic tourists. Thailand is currently the most ideal paradise of the LGBT in
Vietnam. They chose Thailand for low airfares and low costs and professional
services. The average spending for one traveler for a three-day tour to
Thailand is only $300-$500.
Nguyen
Thu Thuy, a member of the study group, said there is a term for profits from
tourism services for the LGBT - "pink-money".
According
to statistics in 2013, Vietnam had about 1.65 million people in the LGBT
community in the age group of 15-59. If local travel firms design tours and
services for them, they can earn huge revenues.
Literary travel
"Vu
Dai Village in the old days" is the first literary tourism tour in
Vietnam. It was offered by Khat Vong Viet Travel Company in late 2014 in Hoa
Hau commune, Ly Nhan district in Ha Nam province, the hometown of well-known
writer Nam Cao, the author of “Vu Dai Village in the old days”, a famous
literary work in Vietnam.
With the
cost of only VND300,000 ($27)/person, the tour helps visitors return to the
northern countryside of Vietnam in the late 18th century to experience the
characters and events in literary works by writer Nam Cao such as Chi Pheo, Thi
No, Ba Kien, ...
Nguyen Ba
Toan, director of Khat Vong Viet said the tour sold well and tourists were
interested in living one day as Chi Pheo-Thi No, the famous couple in Vietnam
literature and to participate in processing the Vu Dai’s famous specialty – ca
kho (braised fish).
Dr.
Nguyen Thu Hanh, President of the Union of Science for Tourism Development,
said the literary treasures of Vietnam were an abundant resource of tourism.
The union is planning to implement some literature-based such as the tour to
the hometown of poet Nguyen Khuyen in Ha Nam Province, the tour to the hometown
of great poet Nguyen Du in Ha Tinh province and to the hometown of poet Han Mac
Tu in Binh Dinh province.
Studio tours
After the
film "I saw the yellow flowers on the green grass" was released last
year, the number of tourists to the central province of Phu Yen where the movie
was shot soaredby 20-40%.
Similarly,
after the Hollywood film crew shot some scenes of the Kong: Skull Island in the
central province of Quang Binh earlier this year, the provincial authorities
said they would retain the studios at Yen Phu Lake and Chuot Cave to serve
tourism.
Mr. Vuong
Duy Bien, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism also stated that the
Ministry would create favorable conditions to welcome foreign film crews to
Vietnam for filming.
In
mid-2014, Quang Ninh province carried out the Yen Tu studio project, the
largest studio for filming movies with the ancient background, which is
expected to become a cultural and historical park of Vietnam and a destination
for tourists to learn about Vietnamese culture.
This
project will be completed in more than 1 year. However, its contribution to the
tourism industry is still a big question mark because the failure of the Co Loa
studio in Dong Anh district, Hanoi is an expensive lesson.
Built at
the cost of VND108 billion ($5 million), this studio is now in ruins after only
one year of operation.
Tien
Phong
No comments:
Post a Comment