Number of Tourism Service Enterprises in Hai Phong in 2009

conditions for tourists to look up information about Hai Phong tourism conveniently and quickly.

Therefore, Hai Phong tourism has recently made new developments in both quality and quantity. However, it still cannot be compared with other localities in the country such as Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, etc. due to many factors. First of all, the promotion and advertising work has not been synchronized and unified, and is still slow and lagging behind. For example, in the "Impressive Vietnam" campaign, Hai Phong tourism industry is not very interested in this campaign for various reasons. This shows that the city's management work has not had close coordination between sectors, local authorities and tourism businesses.

Also because the investment environment in the fields, especially the tourism field, is not really attractive, in addition, tourism products are not unique, many products are still monotonous, many tourist attractions have not been regularly renovated, lacking attractiveness, leading to many stagnant problems in the city's tourism activities.

The workforce serving the tourism industry has grown in quantity but its structure and quality are not yet reasonable, failing to meet the requirements of tourists, especially the tourism marketing department, tour guides, and receptionists. Most of these workforces have poor professional qualifications, low foreign language communication skills, and only a small number of those with good foreign language communication skills. Therefore, direct promotion to tourists through these forces has not been effective. The city has not invested properly in tourism promotion activities to be able to reach out to potential international markets such as the Japanese tourist market. The city's promotion activities are mostly limited to a small scale, partly due to limited funding for this work.

However, with a stable national political situation, open economic policy, abundant human resources are being invested in training according to international standards.

In addition to the favorable natural conditions and unique cultural traditions, the city has the foundation to build and develop a modern, high-quality tourism industry that is competitive with major tourist centers in the country and in the region. In addition, Vietnam has joined the WTO, so the opportunities for the tourism industry are huge, but opportunities always come with challenges, requiring the city's tourism industry to strive, overcome difficulties, and have appropriate development policies.

2.1.2 Current status of tourism exploitation in Hai Phong

Developing tourism in a sustainable manner makes tourism truly become a spearhead economic sector in the city's socio-economic development strategy, boosting investment, promoting tourism, forming tourist areas and routes that meet national and international standards, building modern infrastructure and technical facilities, quickly training high-quality human resources in both quantity and quality to be competitive enough to gradually turn Hai Phong into a regional and international tourism center. This is the common goal of Hai Phong's tourism industry.

Currently, in Hai Phong city, there are many tourism service businesses with all economic sectors including state-owned enterprises, joint-stock enterprises, private enterprises, and joint ventures.

The following are statistics on the number of tourism service businesses in the city.

Table 3: Number of tourism service businesses in Hai Phong in 2009

STT

Businesses	Quantity	Register by law DN
1	State-owned enterprise	32
2	Joint Stock Company	31	27
3	Joint venture	5
4	Ltd.	110	90
5	Branch	15	12
6	Private enterprise	28	18
7	Sole proprietorship	348
	Total	569	143

Maybe you are interested!

(Source: Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong)

Thus, the city's tourism industry has truly become a key economic sector that the city is promoting to develop with an increasingly expanding scale.

Regarding accommodation services: Accommodation facilities are increasingly improved and developed to meet the needs of tourists. Among the businesses operating tourist accommodation in Hai Phong, the whole city has only 58 accommodation service businesses (1994), no star-rated hotels. By 2007, the first 11 hotels in Hai Phong out of a total of 90 tourist accommodation facilities were ranked from 1 star to 3 stars according to national standards with 2085 rooms.

Table 4: Statistics of star-rated hotels in Hai Phong in 2009

Types of guests

hotel

Quantity	Quantity room	Number of meeting rooms
4 stars	7	451	24
3 stars	11	115	68
1-2 stars	70	2426
Total	88	2992

(Source: Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong)

In 2003, the number of accommodation establishments reached 134, of which 57 were rated from 1 to 4 stars. And by 2009, the whole city had 88 accommodation establishments rated from 1 to 4 stars, especially the number of 3-star and 4-star hotels was constantly increasing. After 12 years of development, the number of hotels rated by stars increased 8 times compared to 1997, the number of rooms meeting international standards was increasingly invested in and increased rapidly in number.

That shows that accommodation facilities in the city are increasingly focused on investment, upgrading, meeting quality standards and continuously increasing in quantity to meet the growing demand of the market.

Regarding travel business units: in the city, there are currently about 8 businesses and 2 branches with the function of international travel business, 71 businesses with the function of domestic travel business. Many businesses have realized that tourism business activities cannot be separated from travel business activities to increase initiative. For example, Van Hoa Tourism Company (Do Son) has combined accommodation business activities with travel business activities, helping the company to be more proactive during the city's peak tourist seasons.

In 2009, the Hai Phong Department of Tourism issued and renewed cards for 128 more tour guides. The Department also coordinated with training institutions such as Hai Phong Private University and Hai Phong Tourism College to organize training.

human resources serving the city's tourism, especially tour guides at tourist sites and routes. Currently, at tourist sites in the city, there are often no tour guides. This is also a major limitation of the Hai Phong tourism industry that has not been completely overcome.

Most of the travel businesses in the city are small and medium-sized enterprises, not strong enough to exploit international visitors, not qualified to open representative offices or branches abroad to directly exploit and promote the city's tourism products to key markets abroad, but often have to go through intermediaries.

Therefore, Hai Phong tourism industry is often passive in terms of time and international visitors. On the other hand, the connection between businesses in the city is not large, still fragmented and scattered, so there is no collective strength in promotion and investment to develop tourism. This requires the participation and support of city authorities at all levels.

Regarding tourist transportation : Hai Phong is a centrally-governed city with a developed and convenient transportation system. There is a seaport located on the East-West and North-South international shipping routes. Currently, the city has developed cruise tourism, the seaport transportation system has been put into operation for tourism, welcoming international tourists by ship at Dinh Vu port.

Roads, railways, and airways are also important national and international traffic hubs. Hai Phong is 102 km from Hanoi along Highway 5, located on the Thai Binh - Hanoi - Quang Ninh route, giving Hai Phong many advantages in connecting tourism with neighboring regions and is currently being exploited quite effectively by the city.

There are daily railway routes from Hanoi - Hai Phong - Hanoi, and waterways are very diverse with many routes from Hai Phong - Cat Ba - Ha Long -

Mong Cai, the air route is also quite developed with flights from Hai Phong to Ho Chi Minh City and vice versa, from Hai Phong to Macau.

All types of transportation are used and exploited to the maximum to serve tourism. However, due to the characteristics of coastal terrain (sea, island), the means of tourism transportation by sea is still the main one. Previously, tourists to Cat Ba could only travel by high-speed boat, but since 2002, Hai Phong has opened an additional road route through two ferry terminals Dinh Vu and Ben Got.

Although the transportation time is still slow, the opening route has been welcomed by travel agencies, tourist cars can take tourists to the tourist attractions, tourists are also very interested in this route because they can admire the beautiful landscape of Cat Ba. At the same time, this route has been put into operation, reducing the pressure on high-speed boat transportation during peak seasons, satisfying the travel needs of tourists when going to the island.

The hydrofoil high-speed boat route has also been exploited more, developing a number of new routes to serve tourists at both Binh and Dinh Vu wharfs. Both types of land and sea transport bring new discoveries from many angles for tourists on the way to Cat Ba. In 2004, Hai Phong had 6 businesses investing in 13 high-speed boats to serve passengers on the Hai Phong - Cat Ba route. In 2009, many more high-speed boat companies invested to serve the people and tourists.

Currently in Hai Phong, there are 32 tourist passenger transport service businesses, including both private and state-owned enterprises, meeting the travel needs of tourists. Means of transport have been and are being invested properly, quality is always guaranteed, the bus and taxi system is increasingly developing, creating favorable conditions for tourists to travel easily.

With all the above mentioned convenient infrastructure facilities for tourism, it can be affirmed that Hai Phong has a lot of potential for

tourism development. With the archaeological site of Cai Beo, it proves that this land has been developed and inhabited for more than 6000 years. Hai Phong also preserves many historical and cultural relics, many temples, mausoleums and unique festivals.

Hai Phong also has many resorts stretching out to the sea with beautiful beaches, charming landscapes, suitable for sightseeing, relaxation, and swimming. This is a strength of the city's tourism, which has been and is being exploited to serve tourism. Every year, after each occasion of April 30 - May 1 and until the end of summer, the city's sea tourism is bustling and attracts many tourists from all over the world to visit and relax.

With its available potential, Hai Phong tourism industry is gradually turning that potential into tourism products to develop tourism. Historical and cultural relics, archaeological relics, and traditional festivals of coastal residents have been exploited very effectively.

For example, the Buffalo Fighting Festival (Do Son) held on the 9th day of the 8th lunar month every year has attracted many tourists, including foreign tourists. This is considered one of the 15 unique festivals of the country and is also a festival with the typical cultural identity of Hai Phong. Currently, this festival is held many times a year during the city's important events such as the Do Son Tourism Festival, the celebration of the city's liberation day (May 13) ...

One of the strengths of Hai Phong tourism is the strength of sea tourism, which stands out with two famous tourist destinations: Do Son and Cat Ba. During the summer, especially from April 30 to May 1, the number of visitors to Cat Ba and Do Son increases dramatically. In 2009, Cat Ba exceeded its target of welcoming its 1 millionth visitor.

Do Son these days the number of visitors is also constantly increasing. The large number of visitors comes from many reasons, including many entertainment areas that have been invested in and upgraded, and many projects have been

newly built. Service activities as well as tourism products are also diversified to suit the increasing needs of tourists, especially international tourists. Currently, in Do Son tourist area, an 18-hole golf course has been put into tourism exploitation, Hon Dau entertainment area and adventure games on the beach such as parachuting have also been exploited and put into use in tourism activities, increasing the attractiveness of the destination.

A series of new tours have been established such as Dau Island tours, countryside tours and tours linking with tourist attractions in neighboring provinces which are very popular because the benefits of the trips are increased thanks to this connection.

During the peak days of the tourist season, the number of tourists coming to Hai Phong is high, the room occupancy rate at accommodation facilities is quite high, in Cat Ba the room occupancy rate is up to 95%. The situation of beggars soliciting tourists and environmental pollution has been initially controlled and limited, which has partly restored the trust of tourists, especially international tourists.

In Cat Ba and Do Son tourist areas, in addition to sea tourism, there are also historical, cultural and religious relics, traditional festivals and folk games. Thanks to these tourism resources, Hai Phong has been exploiting cultural and religious eco-tours combined with sea tourism, making the city's tourism products more diverse and attractive, thereby attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists.

In Cat Ba, during the recent Canh Dan Tet holiday, Cat Ba tourism was rich with festival activities. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Cat Hai district coordinated with the local government and people to restore a series of traditional festivals and games such as Hien Hao communal house festival, banh chung wrapping contest, swinging, cockfighting, fishing festival, boat racing... to exploit tourism to serve tourists.

Tourists coming to Cat Ba can also visit Lan Ha Bay, Monkey Island by taking a cross-island journey, explore the pristine beauty of Cat Ba National Park, participate in festival activities and folk games. Therefore, the year

Comment