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| Representative of Hue Travel Association presented souvenirs to Malaysia Tourism Promotion Agency on the occasion of the survey trip |
Without intermediaries
In mid-March, the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Agency Office in Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Thua Thien Hue Travel Association organized a survey trip to tourist attractions in Malaysia. Hue travel businesses have experienced one by one - the actual tourism products in Malaysia. In particular, they have met and connected with Malaysian tourism businesses to move forwards into corporations and pledged to increase the number of tourists from Malaysia to Hue and vice versa in the coming time.
According to the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Agency based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in general and the Central region, in particular, have always been one of Malaysia's leading international tourist markets in Southeast Asia for the last few years. Specifically, in 2019, when there was no disease, Malaysia welcomed more than 400,000 Vietnamese visitors. Since Malaysia “opened the doors” in April 2022 to the end of the year, there have been about 110,000 Vietnamese tourists choosing to travel to Malaysia.
At the meeting with Hue tourism businesses, Mr. Dato' Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, Administrator of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Agency, emphasized that through the survey program, the Malaysian tourism industry hoped to inspire and give the motivation to travel agents so as to promote and sell Malaysian tourism products successfully in Vietnam, especially the Central region, where there are many advantages for Malaysian tourism to exploit.
In contrast, the flow of Malaysian tourists to Vietnam in recent years has been increasing. Only for visitors to the Central region in the period of March 2023, there are 4 fixed flights every day from Malaysia to Da Nang, in which passengers were mainly tourists. This shows that Malaysian tourists are opting for the Central region as an important destination.
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| Hue businesses conducting surveys in Malaysian destinations |
Mr. Do Ngoc Co, Chairman of the Provincial Travel Association shared that for a long time, Hue businesses have exploited tours to Malaysia through joint tours with Singapore. In fact, there is no tour solely to Malaysia, and the number of Malaysian tourists when coming to the Central region choose Hue is not much.
For a long time, tourism businesses in Hue have not provided services to companies in Malaysia, but have to go through intermediaries. Therefore, it is very important to visit the country directly to get connection, helping Hue businesses examine the quality of services here and determine the destinations that will suit the needs of domestic customers.
“During the trip, the direct "handshake" between the Provincial Travel Association and Malaysian travel businesses will help businesses actively coordinate in service provision. This coordination is more crucial when we can organize new tours, with highly competitive prices without going through intermediaries,” shared Mr. Co.
Supporting each other to exploit
The development potential between the two sides has been recognized. Particularly, the Malaysian side affirmed to have found promising opportunities with emerging markets such as Hue and the North Central region. Meanwhile, Malaysia is also an appealing tourist market to attract more tourists in the central region. For a long time, the tours to Malaysia have mainly been combined with Singapore, so the cost is relatively high. Now, when doing a specific tour to Malaysia, with about 8 million VND, it is very suitable for the current spending level of Hue and North Central customers.
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| The two partners exchange and seek the cooperation opportunities |
In tourism, to have long-term maintenance, it is necessary to include a sharing and reciprocal source of visitors for each other. It is known that a number of businesses have promoted and worked with Malaysian airlines, partners, as well as governments to have the first charter flights to bring Vietnamese tourists to Malaysia and vice versa. This information shows that businesses have taken the initiative in building products, contributing to the development of tourism in Thua Thien Hue province.
However, there are two significant difficulties that businesses are encountering. The first is about air service. Many partners in Malaysia believe that the destination that visitors from their country have visited when coming to the Central region is Da Nang. All legal procedures and basic facilities are available there. However, if the landing site moves to Hue, there will be a lot of initial legal procedures that need completing. The operation of new routes will encounter possible risks if the process of such procedures is lengthy.
The second difficulty is the reciprocal source of visitors. The number of visitors departing from Hue will be stable because, besides Hue, the two markets of Quang Binh and Quang Tri also show positive results. However, the source of visitors from Malaysia to Hue is quite competitive. With a new route and a “fledgling" destination in the Malaysians’ minds, this could be considered a big challenge, requiring high determination.
Mr. Do Ngoc Co said that because of this fact, Hue Travel Association set a goal of having a reciprocal flight each month, then gradually increasing the frequency. It is important that the businesses of the two countries cooperate and have close commitments to each other. After the recent survey, if necessary, businesses in Hue will continue to go to Malaysia again to discuss and have official agreements. If it is possible, in May or June in 2023, when the T2 terminal of Phu Bai International Airport is brought into use, the first tours will be deployed.
According to Mr. Co, the Malaysian partner, affirmed that if the procedures were not too complicated and the cost of flying did not increase much compared to Da Nang, they would choose Hue. That is the determination of businesses on both sides. Hopefully, in the process of implementing procedures, those on routes and flight registrations must be convenient so that businesses would have more motivation to deploy connections.