Government says it needs more money to promote tourism, so it wants to charge visitors an extra US$1 per day  Travel company director Tran Vinh Loc does not know how to tell his customers that the only way his government can think of to promote tourism here is to charge visitors US$1 a day. “It is the government and not tourists who are responsible for tourism promotion,” said the director of “Tourism services pay taxes and the government should use a portion of the revenue to invest in promotion activities. How can they want to shift that responsibility to tourists?” he added. But apart from concerns over the tax’s bad impacts on tourism, experts and insiders are more concerned about the failing promotion of tourism in At a recent meeting of tourism companies and relevant authorities in Tuan said the proposal had been included in a government draft resolution on tourism development for 2013-2020. The fee would be an important source of funds for tourism promotion activities, he said. The government was spending some VND50 billion ($2.35 million) on tourism promotion every year before it was reduced to VND30 billion ($1.4 million) in 2012. Tuan said funding was not enough for More than 6.85 million foreigners had visited If imposed, the levy is expected to render revenues of more than $20 million a year, as each tourist stays for three days on an average. Loc, director of Lac Hong Voyages, said three days per stay is a short time considering the average five-day stay in “Instead of increasing the average number of days a tourist stays in Where’s the money? Even if the fee is imposed, experts suspect tourism promotion will still be hindered by the ineffective management of spending endemic to Bui Cao Son, director of Cruise Ha Long Company, said when the VNAT discussed the tourism tax in April, it was unable to explain how the funds would be managed, supervised and used. “That is unclear and lack of transparency,” he said. Son said “Toilets are filthy and many destinations are polluted,” he said. According to the latest plan, visitors to Ha Long Bay will pay VND200,000 ($9.5) for a “sleep-over” fee, in addition to the prices of boat tickets and room fees, starting from next month. “In 2013, around 3 million international tourists visited Ha Long and the province collected up to $84 million in revenues, not including revenue from domestic tourists. Where has the money gone as Ha Long Bay’s destinations continue to deteriorate?” Son said. Robert Tan, a Singaporean tourism expert, also argued that charging $1 per day for international tourists could be seen as discrimination compared to domestic tourists. Out of focus If Kenneth Atkinson, head of the Vietnam Business Forum’s Tourism Working Group, said this tax was first mooted by his working group and the European Chamber of Commerce in “However what’s imperative in this is transparent collection and control over the funds and how they are spent to ensure they are not wasted,” he toldVietweek. “This also has to be matched against our requests for the authorities to reexamine He said “We are losing ground to our neighbors like Experts say “The problems is that most of what is good about Vietnam as a travel destination happens in spite of, rather than because of, good management and leadership,” said Mark Bowyer, a tourism expert who founded Travel Indochina and runs the website www.rustycompass.com. Tim Russell, a Briton who lived and worked in Vietnam for 10 years and is now the director of sales and marketing of a travel agency in Thailand, said if VNAT needs extra money for promotion, they should discuss this with immigration authorities and use some of the “inflated” visa fees for this purpose. “Given the recent hike in visa fees, making visas in Tourists also complain that when they go to The Vietnam Business Forum, a consortium of international and local business associations and chambers of commerce, said in its annual report released recently that there has been “no progress” in ushering in a transparent, open, and effective visa-on-arrival system in According to Russell, many countries charge a tourism fee but this is usually hidden within visa fees or airline taxes and thus tourists are unaware of it and no negative publicity is generated. “I would advise against “This is most definitely not the case at present and whilst the current VNAT regime is in place, there is little point in increasing the promotion budget.” By Tran Tam - Khanh An, Thanh Nien News |
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