Major Customer Markets Visiting Hlktdt Over The Past Years

country to the urban tourism integration area, in addition to exploiting direct tourist sources.

Da Nang has become a bright spot in exploiting direct tourist sources. However, the increase in tourist numbers mainly comes from air routes, when direct flights are continuously opened to Da Nang. Thus, how to develop tourists from Da Nang traveling by road to localities on the route is also a topic that needs research.

Nationality of visitors to countries and localities on the route is also one of the important issues that need to be paid close attention. According to statistics from the General Departments of Tourism of Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, the nationality of visitors is divided into specific groups as follows:

- Tourists within the region and between 4 countries travel to each other

- Europe – Australia – America

- Northeast Asia (China, Korea, Japan)

- Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines)

- South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh)

- Other nationalities.

With the current passenger structure, it is difficult to achieve sustainable development of tourist sources on the route. Local tourists mainly travel due to the convenience of roads, curiosity to discover new things and low spending. The source of tourists from Europe - Australia - America in this period are mainly backpackers, going to Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Cambodia combined with sightseeing on the route and mainly want to explore the wild features and prices. ecological treatment. To be able to develop long-term product lines, key investments are needed to attract customers from Northeast Asia and South Asia, especially from China and India.

Table 2.10 below shows opinions from businesses when responding to major visitor markets to the e-commerce platform in recent years. Accordingly, Vietnam is still the market that businesses are most interested in, followed by Southeast Asian countries, China...

Table 2.10. Large customer markets have come to HLKTDT in recent years

Guest market

Frequency	Enterprise rate Agree
Vietnamese guest market	27	93.1%
Thai tourist market	12	41.4%
Lao tourist market	4	13.8%
Customer markets from other Southeast Asian countries	16	55.2%
Japanese customer market	8	27.6%
Korean customer market	11	37.9%
Chinese tourist market	14	48.3%
French customer market	1	3.4%

Maybe you are interested!

Source: Author's survey.

The formation of the East-West Economic Corridor, especially the opening of Huu Nghi 2 Bridge on December 19, 2006 connecting Mukdahan with Savanakhet, has created conditions for localities on the route from Savanakhet to Da Nang to have strong growth. about tourists. During the period from 2007 to 2010, the number of tourists coming to the central provinces of Vietnam on HLKTDT increased dramatically. In 2007, only in the first 6 months of the year, about 160,000 visitors came to Vietnam through Lao Bao border gate (up 40% over the same period last year), the number of visitors passing through Lao Bao international border gate for the whole year was 404,500. people (doubled in 2006). In 2008, despite suffering from difficulties caused by the financial crisis, the number of cars imported and exported through Lao Bao border gate was still 56,000, equal to 2007; The number of tourists passing through Lao Bao border gate in 2008 increased by 32,629 people compared to 2007. In Thua Thien Hue and Da Nang, the number of Thai tourists arriving by road helped Thailand rise to number 1 in the total number of visitors. international visitors to these two localities in 2007-2008.

Through the East-West Economic Corridor, Laos is also a favorite tourist destination for many tourists in the region and around the world. In 2005, there were 1.1 million foreign tourists to Laos, equivalent to 1/4 of the country's population, in

More than 80% of that comes by road, bringing a very significant source of income to the budget.

However, after a period of 3-4 years of hot development, from 2011 the number of visitors began to gradually decrease. Localities on the Vietnamese side no longer recognize Thailand as the largest source of visitors in their visitor source structure. From 2011 until now, the source of visitors arriving by road via HLKTDT has only accounted for a very small proportion, except for Savanakhet and Quang Tri. The main reason is that the products on the route are too monotonous, the traffic infrastructure system is not synchronized, the travel time on the road is too much, entry and exit procedures are still cumbersome, and travel companies compete with each other. Buying, selling and pushing the service quality is too low... On the other hand, this source of customers is mainly overseas Vietnamese from the Northeast region of Thailand who come to visit their hometown, so they only come in droves in the beginning. Therefore, it is necessary to focus promotion efforts on a number of other tourist sources and thoroughly overcome the problems mentioned above to hope for sustainable development of tourist sources on the route.

2.2.4. Human resources for tourism development

The sudden growth in the number of visitors on e-commerce platforms in 2007

– 2010 showed a huge gap in human resources on the line, and when this gap was basically overcome, the situation of human resources on the line was still weak and lacking in many areas, even though the Agreement on professional recognition was mixed. in general in ASEAN and in tourism in particular (MRA-TP: Mutual Regconition Agreement on Tourism Professionals) was approved and took effect from January 1, 2015 with the main content of creating a mechanism to help unify and recognize equivalent qualifications for tourism professions throughout ASEAN based on professional qualifications and degree certification, through which workers can move freely within ASEAN, specifically as follows:

For the State management team, the majority of tourism management personnel on the route have not been properly trained in tourism, especially in localities in Burma and Laos. Therefore, awareness in tourism development is lacking. Sustainable planning, in identifying local products, locating customer sources, implementing promotional activities, controlling on-line services, foreign language proficiency... there are still many limitations. There have been many projects sponsoring human resource training from the European Community and the Development Bank

Asia Development for local managers has improved the quality of this human resource somewhat, however, if you want tourism on the urban train system to develop in depth, it is necessary to continue to strengthen training and have policies in place. attract high-quality human resources to work in the field of state management.

Regarding the service supply system, human resources in big cities such as Khon Kean, Sukhothai, Hue, and Da Nang have basically met the requirements of all types of customers, while the remaining localities have very abundant human resources. Abundant in quantity, but most of them are untrained, lack professional expertise, attitudes, and foreign languages, and can only be suitable for small-scale services, mainly serving backpackers and low-income customers. weak.

In the on-line service system, the human resource situation of tour guides and drivers is of great concern. Due to the characteristics of inter-country road travel programs, there is a lot of time spent in the car, so the quality of the tour guide and driver team has a decisive influence on tourist satisfaction. When the number of Thai tourists increased dramatically from 2007 to 2010, the number of Thai language guides became seriously scarce, forcing companies to employ both Laotians and very old Thai overseas Vietnamese to work. instruct. The supply was balanced about 2-3 years later when Vietnamese students flocked to Thailand to study the language, and now when the number of visitors has decreased, this force has become redundant, requiring a lot of time. to switch to another job. Therefore, there needs to be orientation and planning of human resources on the route to be able to serve many sources of customers: China, Korea, Japan, India, Europe..., and diverse needs: Individual guests, group guests, conference guests, seminar guests, resort guests...

A bright spot in human resources is the staff at travel companies that exploit customers on the route. These companies have quickly built teams and implemented sales, connection, product introduction and customer management activities. Most of the branded travel companies on the route participate in exploiting the road tourist source, including some foreign companies, contributing to increasing the professionalism of exploitation activities.

2.2.5. Current status of road tourism development links

One of the most basic contents of road tourism development on the HLKTĐT route is to link the Government, State management agencies on tourism (General Department of Tourism), localities on the route and units. service providers and travel companies. This is an activity that has been very weak in recent times, has not gone into practice, and detailed instructions have not been implemented. Specifically as follows:

Regarding linkages to create and implement legal frameworks, legal frameworks have not been synchronously formed, or have been formed but the implementation of implementation instructions is still very confusing, has not gone into the essence of linkages, and also creates barriers. big obstacle for tourism development on the route. This content will be analyzed in detail in section 2.2.6.

Regarding links at the Government level, countries have agreed to establish a mechanism to organize the annual Deputy Foreign Ministers' Conference. Before this conference, there will be a Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and expert meetings on each specific field. The General Departments of Tourism have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Mekong Subregion countries within the framework of the Tourism Development Conference held in Bangkok on May 17, 2016, the Memorandum of Understanding in the Development Cooperation Conference. traveling on the East-West Economic Corridor in Hoi An (Quang Nam) on September 22, 2017, a number of survey delegations have been organized under the ASEAN - India program... However, these activities have the intention of more cognitive meaning than creating specific product-market links.

Regarding links in State management in localities, there has been cooperation signed between Quang Tri - Savannakhet - Mukdahan, Hue - Phitsanulok, Da Nang - Khon Kean. However, these links are still quite loose, basically just orienting travel companies to exchange guests. Particularly, Quang Tri - Savanakhet - Mukdahan has a content agreement to facilitate passenger transportation. tourism, synchronizing procedures at two pairs of border gates (but not yet applied). Burmese localities (Mawlamyine, Myawaddy) participate in almost any cooperative activities. The land border gate at Myawaddy still does not exempt visas for ASEAN citizens (only exempted at airport border gates). makes work difficult

Deploying tourism products on the route.

Regarding the link to create common products and locate customer sources, this content has almost not been implemented at the State management level. Localities on the strong route do their own thing and form their own local products. Only travel companies connect destinations on the route to create products; there is no support from localities in identifying strengths and differences in resources to coordinate into products. general product. Thematic products and general themed products have not yet been formed across the entire line. The Vietnamese side already has a theme product through 3 localities, the Heritage Journey program, but it has not yet been fully developed. There has not been a detailed study of the tourist sources on the route to determine which are the main tourist sources, ranked in order of priority, and which tourist sources will be exploited in the short and long term.

The work of linking promotion and advertising to the main customer markets is still very confusing because a common product has not been formed, the main customer sources have not been located on the entire route, and promotion funds and coordination mechanisms have not been formed. combine resources. Therefore, promotion work mainly lies in each locality, depending on the exploitation orientation and promotion budget as well as the level of socialization. Some localities in Thailand (Sukhothai, Khon Kaen) and Vietnam (Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang) have been very proactive in local-scale promotion work, mobilizing state budget and social resources. goods from service and travel businesses. However, at the scale of the entire route, there are almost no specific promotion activities, a complete lack of common products, common image positioning, and resources mobilized from localities and organizations. intermediary connecting promotion activities. This is one of the issues that need the most attention to promote the development of road tourism on urban transport routes.

2.2.6. Barriers to the development of road tourism

Inter-regional development among countries in the region, the economic potential of urban tourism is recognized by the international community. However, in the process of economic cooperation between countries belonging to the ICZI period: 1998 - 2010, many limitations have been revealed.

mechanisms need to be overcome and this situation has not yet seen positive changes despite being seen from relevant sectors and localities. Until 2010, economic cooperation between localities and countries in the urban economic integration system still had many barriers, especially problems due to incompatible mechanisms of each country, making the urban economic integration system unable to truly open up.

From Lao Bao border gate to Da Nang Port (Road 9 and National Highway 1A), there are about 30 towns, narrow roads, and high density of motorbike traffic. Many traffic points and checkpoints regulate an average speed of about 30 km/h, limiting the speed of passenger transport. Traffic on National Highway 9 is limited due to inadequate soft medians and traffic police checkpoints that often make mistakes over the lines, causing a feeling of congestion and wasting a lot of time for traffic on the route. This way. Although there have been some small changes by the road traffic industry in terms of removing some signs regulating maximum speed regulations and being replaced with signs to slow down, for solid painted lines (distinction). distance) at some corners on Highway 9 (Khe Sanh - Cam Lo) but this limitation has not yet been resolved.

In particular, there are differences in steering (forward and reverse) between Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand, so using a tourist car to transport passengers throughout the journey is very difficult, pushing up transportation costs. get high. Taking Thai Caravan (self-driving car) passengers in right-hand drive cars into Vietnam requires waiting for permission and carrying out procedures for temporary import and re-export of vehicles, which is time-consuming and costly. From June 2009, the agreement on right-hand drive vehicles on the entire HLKTDT route to enter each other's territory took effect. But, up to now, the implementation of the agreement still has many problems, causing the number of vehicles from Thailand and Laos entering Vietnam to remain limited. On the contrary, many Vietnamese businesses bringing customers into Thailand and vice versa have had to change vehicles at the Laos-Thai border, accepting additional costs rather than the hassle of having to apply for all kinds of licenses. The "One stop, one inspection" regulation only applies to goods.

Regarding entry and exit procedures for tourists, checks still need to be carried out on both sides of the border gate, for both pairs of border gates in the first and last days.

program (For example, Mukdahan - Savanakhet, Densavan - Lao Bao for the tourist program from Thailand to Da Nang - Hue), makes tourists very time-consuming and tiring. Although ASEAN is one of the places with the most preferential visa exemption/visa regime (Figure 2.7), citizens of ASEAN countries traveling between each other do not need a visa. Thailand has exempted tourist visas for tourists. 53 countries and territories, this number in Vietnam is 22, Laos 15, Burma only exempts 8 Southeast Asian countries; Besides, most countries on the route have applied electronic visa (e-visa) and visa upon arrival policies (Visa upon arrival, except Burma), but most tourists and travel businesses Authorities still assess that entry and exit procedures at land border gates are still very cumbersome, time-consuming, and need to be quickly resolved.

Figure 2.7. Statistics on the degree of openness of visa policy

Source: Asian Development Bank (ADB) [09]

In terms of policies, immigration policies and procedures, there are still many shortcomings. Based on the initial goals of a rapidly developing economic area thanks to the positive impact of the urban economic integration system, it was not achieved as expected, due to many obstacles.

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