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General Assessment After 5 Years of Implementing the Tourism Ordinance


tourism in a multilateral and diversified direction on the basis of "Vietnam wants to be friends with all countries". In many provinces and centrally-run cities, many Departments of Tourism or Departments of Trade and Tourism have been established to perform the function of State management of tourism at the local level. Currently, there are 12 Departments of Tourism and 49 Departments of Trade and Tourism nationwide. General Department of Tourism

Tourism includes 8 Departments

function, 6 units

enterprises, 17 direct enterprises

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belongs to. The whole industry has about 1,000 enterprises belonging to all economic sectors. The model of State management organization of tourism is shown in the following diagram:


General Assessment After 5 Years of Implementing the Tourism Ordinance

GOVERNMENT


OTHER MINISTRY-LEVEL AGENCIES

GENERAL DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM

People's Committee of CITY, PROVINCE


DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM OR DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND TOURISM

CALENDAR


State tourism enterprise managed by the Central Government

State tourism enterprises managed by localities

Foreign invested tourism enterprise

Cooperative tourism enterprise

Limited liability company tourism

Private tourism enterprise

Tourism service business

Joint stock travel company


Current model of state management of tourism in Vietnam


With the attention of the Party and Government, with the open door policy

With the support of the State, the coordination and support of all levels of industry, organizations and the efforts of all staff and workers in the industry, Vietnam tourism has achieved remarkable progress.


When talking about the legal basis for tourism, it is impossible not to mention an important event that has changed the face of tourism in Vietnam. That is: in February 1999, the National Assembly Standing Committee issued the Tourism Ordinance. For the first time in Vietnam, tourism is regulated by principles and legal regulations in a unified document with high effectiveness.

With 9 chapters and 56 articles, the Tourism Ordinance has gradually come into effect.

live, direction and regulation

relationships

Vietnam on the path of innovation

of the Party on the basis of implementing the Tourism Ordinance, Vietnam Tourism has achieved many great results. Therefore, it is impossible not to mention some features of this Ordinance.

Nearly a year ago, the General Department of Tourism and the initial summary of 4 years of implementing the Tourism Ordinance to evaluate the "good" and "bad" aspects of the Ordinance and other related legal documents to see their limitations and shortcomings in order to create a more scientific and solid legal basis for tourism. That is the Tourism Law. Referring to the results of the 4-year evaluation of the Ordinance's implementation gives us a more general view of Vietnam Tourism.

2.2. General assessment after 5 years of implementing the Tourism Ordinance

* Regarding the implementation and guidance of the Law on Tourism.

calendar

Since the promulgation of the Tourism Ordinance, the General Department of Tourism has

The Government has issued 5 Decrees guiding the implementation of the Ordinance, namely Decree No. 39/2000/NDCP dated August 24, 2000 of the Government on the basis of

Tourist Accommodation;

number

27/2001/NDCP dated June 5, 2001 of the Government

Government Decree No. 47/2001/ND-CP dated August 10, 2001 of the Government on functions, tasks, powers and organization of the Tourism Inspectorate; Decree No. 50/2002/ND-CP dated April 25, 2002


of the Government on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of Tourism and

Decree No. 94/2003/NDCP dated August 19, 2003, regulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the General Department of Tourism. Coordinate with the Ministry of Trade to submit to the Government for promulgation Decree No. 48/1999/NDCP dated July 8, 1999 of the Government regulating Representative Offices and Branches of

Vietnam Tourism Business and Enterprise

in water,

in water

outside; Resolution

number

45/2000/NDCP dated September 6, 2000 of the Government

rule

regulations on representative offices and branches of foreign traders and

of foreign tourism enterprises in Vietnam. At the same time, the General Department

Tourism has issued and coordinated the issuance of 7 Circulars and 2 Decisions.

guide the above Decrees. Thus, the main activities of Tourism such as travel, tourism guidance, accommodation, inspection, and handling of violations

Administration in the field of Tourism... has provided specific instructions to stabilize and facilitate the development of tourism activities.

body, create environment

Dissemination and implementation of the Tourism Ordinance and documents

The implementation guidelines are also widely deployed to each unit, locality, and tourism management and business establishment through the dissemination and dissemination meetings organized by the General Department of Tourism and the State Departments of Tourism so that the implementation of the Tourism Ordinance and Tourism Law documents on Tourism is complete and consistent for all relevant subjects.

* About travel management:

Before implementing Decree 27 on travel business, tourism guidance and Circular 04, the whole industry had 107 businesses.

international travel businesses, including 97 state-owned enterprises and 7 private enterprises

joint venture enterprises and 3 limited liability companies (LLC). Up to now, the General Department has issued and changed 250 international travel business licenses.


for businesses, including 122 state-owned enterprises, 96 limited liability companies and 20 joint stock companies, 3 private enterprises and 9 travel joint ventures (operating under investment licenses). Localities with many international travel businesses are Ho Chi Minh City (85 businesses), Hanoi (82 businesses), Quang Ninh (12 businesses), Da Nang (12 businesses), Hai Phong (07 businesses). Thus, compared to the time before the issuance of Decree 27, the number of international travel businesses has increased by 143, of which the majority are limited liability companies.

Decree 27 was issued and implemented with conditions and licensing procedures simplified to the maximum extent, resolving inconsistencies.

Inconsistency between some provisions of the Tourism Ordinance and the Enterprise Law

business, issued by the Tourism Ordinance before the Enterprise Law.

Through monitoring business results, it can be seen that, besides some State-owned enterprises operating in international tourism for many years, still playing a key role in the tourism business and some joint venture tourism enterprises, newly licensed enterprises, especially some limited liability companies, have quickly integrated into the tourism business environment of our country, proactively researched and approached the market, contributing to expanding the international market and attracting many visitors from these markets to Vietnam in the past 2 years.

However, it is also necessary to see that the rapid increase of enterprises

International travel industry is associated with the situation of violations that are increasing and becoming more diverse. Because the licensing conditions are very simple and easy, the number of

number of travel businesses

international

fast but effective

terrible

business and service quality do not increase proportionally. Many businesses

businesses that register or apply for a license but do not actually operate

due to lack of strength, negative phenomena such as giving


foreigners hiding, tax evasion, violation of management and reporting regime,

competition for customers between strong travel companies, etc.

unfair competition

In addition, due to some unclear regulations in the Ordinance related to the organization of tourism tours, package services, and partial services, in reality, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, many businesses actually do international travel business but register to do partial services, avoiding the management of the State management agency of tourism.

About the business of welcoming independent tourists (backpackers):

Nowadays, the trend of independent travel in the world is increasing. In recent years, the number of independent tourists coming to Vietnam has increased. To meet the needs of this group of tourists, some businesses

domestic travel, especially in

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Khanh Hoa organized

service to welcome guests. However, according to the Tourism Ordinance and Decree

27. Domestic travel businesses are not allowed to conduct travel business.

international travel...Therefore, it can be said that this regulation is restrictive for domestic travel businesses while international travel businesses do not aim to serve this group of customers.

In the process of implementing legal regulations on conduct, some of the following existing problems have been revealed:

- Regarding domestic travel business:

travel business

Currently, there are thousands of domestic travel businesses nationwide, of which the two locations with the most domestic travel businesses are Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. According to Decree 27 and Circular 04,

Domestic travel business is a conditional business that does not require any qualifications.

license. However, in recent times, many businesses have still

travel business operations

domestic action while not yet met

adequate


conditions for domestic travel business, especially the conditions for depositing money according to regulations. This situation is due to the work of checking and handling violations of the

Conditions for domestic travel business of many State management departments

on Tourism has not been implemented regularly and seriously. The coordination between the local Department of Tourism Management and the Business Registration Office of the local Department of Planning and Investment has not been able to update the number of enterprises.

business registered at the business registration office. In the business field

Recently, domestic travel businesses have seen a need for tour guides while the concept of tour guide under the Ordinance only includes international tour guides. This requires further research on the concept of tour guide and the need for domestic tour guides.

- Hiding situation : Currently , the hiding situation in​

The travel business still exists and is growing.

more sophisticated. Some international travel agencies still allow foreign organizations to operate international travel under the guise of international travel. Some individuals with foreign nationality, through marriage with licensed persons but not actually capable of doing international travel, have become fronts for unlicensed organizations and individuals through providing visa services, lending their names through branches, representative offices, or allowing foreigners to enter directly.

continue to work at the enterprise. Some representative offices

Foreign tourism in Vietnam takes advantage of the licensing mechanism

Representative offices easily took advantage of the name of representative offices.

to do tourism business. Therefore, the phenomenon of hiding has become

become a prominent issue and have been raised at a number of conferences.

about travel

act as well

raise many questions

for tourism management


of our country. This situation also requires stricter regulations to overcome.

- About

joint venture travel

international:

to support

support, facilitate

for travel businesses

international

Vietnam develops, first

Recently, the General Department of Tourism has put forward a number of conditions to limit the

joint venture travel

international

(capital 1 million USD, Vietnam side contributes)

51%, 10-year term, Vietnamese side must be an international travel business...). However, those conditions have not been expressed in the form of legal regulations, so some businesses circumvent legal loopholes, creating disguised international travel joint ventures, causing unfair competition in international travel business.

* About tourist transportation:

The government has abolished the license for other transport business in tourism;

Inter-sectoral decision no.

2418/QDLB dated December 4, 1993 on

transport management

Transferring tourists between the General Department of Tourism and the Ministry of Transport

is also no longer valid. Although Article 34 of the Tourism Ordinance has stipulated the conditions for the business of transporting tourists, it has not been specified in the implementation guidelines, so the transport of tourists such as cars, trains, boats, etc. These vehicles are only subject to general regulations in the form of public passenger transport vehicles. This makes the management of tourist passenger transport business activities difficult; many tourist passenger transport businesses do not ensure the quality of passenger transport vehicles; most of the drivers and vehicle operators have not been trained in tourist passenger transport; many passenger transport businesses combine travel business with tourism business but do not register to avoid taxes and deposit money.

* About Travel Guide:


Implementing the Resolution

Decree 27 and Circular

04, General Department of Tourism has authorized

The authority to issue tourist guide cards to the directors of local tourism management departments. As of November 4, 2003, localities nationwide have issued and exchanged cards for 1,587 tour guides, bringing the total number of tour guides nationwide with cards to 5,194.

The General Department of Tourism has coordinated with universities, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Information and Communications to compile and issue a framework program.

Short-term training in tourist guide skills and designation of 9 training facilities

open universities, including 5 universities in Hanoi, 3 universities in Ho Chi Minh City and 1 university in Da Nang. The General Department of Tourism has coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and 6 universities.

university in

Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh and Can Tho

complete

Adjust the framework of the foreign language program for Tourism. Coordinate with the Ministry of Finance (General Department of Taxation) to issue a Circular guiding Decree 27 on fees and charges for granting tourist guide cards.

However, during the implementation process, there are still some problems as follows:

- According to the provisions of Decree 27 and Circular 04, the conditions for being granted a tour guide card are relatively high, so when implementing, there were some difficulties in granting professional certificates.

foreign language

Major in Tourism. Due to the practical needs of

use

Tour guides for tourist tours, international travel businesses are forced to use many tour guides without cards, especially in the case of some rare languages ​​such as Korean, Japanese, Spanish... In some cases, there should be regulations to reduce the requirements for card issuance conditions to suit reality.

- The management of tour guides in recent times has been

many restrictions, the situation of tour guides working without cards,

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