Representatives from local travel agencies heard the latest insights about Viet Nam’s tourism development, including the 2017 overview and 2018 outlook, at a recent seminar held on September 8 in HCM City.

Speaking at the seminar, Alexander Rayner, representative of Amadeus Travel Intelligence, discussed the latest findings about visitor demand, total number of air passengers, air connectivity, and passengers’ global distribution system (GDS) bookings.

Last year, South Korea, the US and China were the top three countries with the most air passengers to Viet Nam, according to research.

South Korea, in particular, Seoul, continued to top the chart in 2018.

Rayner said that understanding travellers’ data and destination insights would help travel agencies make data driven decisions and eventually advance Viet Nam’s travel and tourism sector.

In addition to general tourism, Rayner also spoke about Phu Quoc Island and moderated a panel discussion on data-driven opportunities to develop better air connectivity to Phu Quoc.

He also stressed the importance of harnessing the potential of blockchain in the travel sector.

Some issues that travel agencies should consider include making loyalty schemes more user-friendly; improving baggage tracking with blockchain technology; simplifying settlements in the travel value chain; and improving identity management in travel.

The seminar, with the theme, “Blockchain for Tourism Development in Viet Nam”, attracted the participation of Ha Van Sieu, vice chairman of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT); Tran Phu Cuong, director general of the International Cooperation Department under VNAT, and La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Tourism, among other representatives from global hotel groups and local travel agencies.

The seminar was held followed a series of events during the 14^th International Travel Expo. – VNS