Reasons Leading to Limitations on Vinh Phuc Tourism Information on Central and Local Electronic Newspapers

The periodicity and limited area of printed newspapers. Electronic newspapers allow continuous posting of news, articles, photo series, videos, hot news that printed newspapers cannot publish immediately. However, it is regrettable that during the survey, the author of the thesis found that Vinh Phuc Electronic Newspaper and Vietnam Tourism Newspaper almost copied all the news, articles, photo series, videos from printed newspapers, very rarely had new independent news, articles, photo series, videos from electronic newspapers.

Even when pushing news, articles, photo series, and videos from print newspapers to e-newspapers, the format of news, articles, photo series, and videos is kept intact without any adjustment to suit the e-newspaper format. As we all know, print newspapers and e-newspapers have different characteristics. The public receives information from e-newspapers through computer screens so they should be skimmed through, so the way news, articles, photo series, and videos convey information is different from the print newspaper format. Therefore, to effectively convey information about Vinh Phuc tourism, Vinh Phuc e-newspaper and Vietnam Tourism Newspaper need to adjust the format appropriately when pushing articles from print newspapers to e-newspapers.

The next limitation is that the Central and local e-newspapers have not really taken advantage of multimedia. As we know, an e-newspaper has both print, visual and audio. A survey of 3 e-newspapers shows that multimedia has not been fully utilized by the newspapers. Vnexpress and Vinh Phuc e-newspapers use videos, but the number is very limited. In particular, all 3 press agencies do not have any audio about Vinh Phuc tourism. Thus, the advantages of audio have not been exploited by the newspapers.

Regarding interactivity, while surveying news, articles, photo series, and videos about Vinh Phuc tourism, the author of the thesis found that only Vnexpress Newspaper published public comments. The other two press agencies did not see any comments or opinions from the public posted. This can be considered a major limitation of the two above newspapers. One of the development trends of the press in the world is to increase interaction with the public, the more direct the better. One strength of the social network Facebook is considered an advantage over the press is the direct interaction of users. Interaction not only helps newspapers get closer to the public but also helps newspapers know the needs of the public. Interaction with the public also helps reporters have more abundant sources of information and documents about Vinh Phuc tourism. All of that

will contribute significantly to the press agency creating press products that are correct and meet the public's needs, attracting the public to read information. It is regrettable that the Vietnam Tourism Electronic Newspaper and Vinh Phuc Electronic Newspaper have not taken advantage of this strength.

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Another limitation is that the central and local electronic newspapers have not yet changed their presentation and applied new ways of conveying information. When surveying news, articles, photo series, and videos about Vinh Phuc tourism, the author of the thesis found that most newspapers still convey information in the old way, which is too many words and few photos. Many articles even have only one photo. The multi-door article presentation style (using text, photos, charts, maps, data tables, etc.) has not been used by newspapers. This is a sad thing, while this presentation style has become popular in the world press and some other press agencies in Vietnam (Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, etc.) are also boldly following this style. Then some new presentation methods such as Interactive, Longform (Visual), flycam, etc. have not been used by newspapers.

One of the effective ways of information of many international press agencies when promoting tourism in a certain place is for reporters to go to the field, tell stories or broadcast live the reporters’ field trips. Central and local electronic newspapers in Vietnam still rarely or not follow this method. This is also an unfortunate limitation.

2.4.2.1. Reasons for the limitation of Vinh Phuc tourism information on central and local electronic newspapers

According to the author of the thesis, there are several main reasons:

One is the journalistic thinking of the press agency leaders. Many press agencies still do journalism in the old way, not daring to experiment with new journalism styles, leading to traditional forms of conveying Vinh Phuc tourism information (heavy on writing). According to the author of the thesis, this is the most important reason, that old thinking has stifled creativity, not urging to find new ways of journalism to create more attractive press products.

Second, there are financial and equipment reasons for the editorial office. Not all editorial offices have enough resources to properly organize field trips for reporters and enough equipment to broadcast the reporters' trips live. Reporter Tran Kim Anh, a travel writer for Vnexpress, said:

“It’s not that we haven’t applied it, we have applied it and the communication effect is quite good. However, to be able to do such series is not easy, because it requires high financial resources, equipment, then operational skills and post-production.”

In addition, due to the limited qualifications of reporters, there is not much creativity when writing news, articles, photo series, and videos about Vinh Phuc tourism; press agencies do not have many forms of encouragement and rewards for journalists to "live and die" with their profession...

The above limitations require solutions to overcome in order to further improve the effectiveness of Vinh Phuc tourism information on central and local electronic newspapers. That is the next content that the author of the thesis mentions.

*Chapter 2 Summary

Thus, in chapter 2, the author of the thesis conducted a survey, analyzed and evaluated the current status of information about Vinh Phuc tourism on central and local electronic newspapers. Thereby, the author of the thesis made the following conclusions: First, the number of news, articles, photo series, and videos is still considered to be low when it comes to information about Vinh Phuc tourism. Second, the newspapers have shown a lot of information about Vinh Phuc tourism, including: Natural beauty, culture and cuisine, tourism development policies, infrastructure and human resources for tourism, tourism promotion. Third, the newspapers have widely used news, articles, photo series, and videos to convey information about Vinh Phuc tourism. The author also gave the public's assessment of Vinh Phuc tourism information on central and local electronic newspapers and the successes, limitations, reasons for success, and limitations in promoting and advertising Vinh Phuc tourism.

CHAPTER 3:

SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION ABOUT VINH PHUC TOURISM ON CENTRAL AND LOCAL ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPERS

3.1. Tourism development goals of Vinh Phuc province

Implementing Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo, Action Program No. 41-CTr/TU dated December 31, 2017 of the Vinh Phuc Provincial Party Committee, on October 24, 2018, the Vinh Phuc Provincial People's Committee issued Action Plan No. 8275/KH-UBND on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector.

The goal of Plan No. 8275 is to develop Vinh Phuc tourism quickly and sustainably so that by 2020, tourism will truly become a destination for Vietnam and the world. The province will effectively exploit the potential and advantages of tourism resources, in which, taking weekend eco-tourism, sports tourism (golftour) as the spearhead; cultural tourism, festivals - spirituality as the foundation.

The province promotes investment attraction, construction of tourism infrastructure, especially means of transport, accommodation facilities, and high-quality tourist resorts; constantly improves the quality and diversity of tourism products, focusing on products with local characteristics and high attractiveness to attract tourists.

Along with that, the province focuses on training and developing high-quality human resources with professional and technical qualifications in tourism to promptly supplement management agencies and tourism service businesses in the area.

Vinh Phuc strives to welcome 6,500,000 visitors/year by 2020, including 50,000 international visitors/year. The growth rate of international visitors is 15%/year, domestic visitors is 20%/year. Revenue is expected to reach 2,600 billion VND/year by 2020, an average increase of 12.7%/year. The tourism industry creates jobs for 28,500 workers (an increase of 9,000 workers), of which 10,000 workers are directly employed in the tourism industry. The trained tourism workforce accounts for over 75%.

The goal by 2030 is to develop tourism services to become a key economic sector of the province; build Vinh Phuc into a tourism center of the region and the whole country; attract over 10 million visitors/year, of which international visitors reach over 10 million.

100,000 visitors/year.

3.2. Issues raised

In order for Vinh Phuc province to achieve the above tourism development goals, there are issues arising for tourism activities in the new situation and for the press, including electronic newspapers on tourism topics.

3.2.1. Issues arising for tourism activities in the new situation

3.2.1.1. Quality of tourism products

Faced with the opportunity to increase access to international visitors as Vietnam integrates deeply and comprehensively with the world region; cooperation within the ASEAN bloc is increasingly strengthened in depth, Vietnam is becoming a destination and emerging market with certain advantages in bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

However, along with the expansion of the tourism business market are significant challenges to the sustainable development of Vietnam's tourism activities in general and Vinh Phuc province's tourism in particular. International tourists coming to Vietnam are increasingly more demanding in assessing the quality of tourism products. Therefore, only by improving the quality of products can Vietnam's tourism in general and Vinh Phuc province's tourism in particular ensure the goal of sustainable development and maintain high competitiveness in the region. Improving the quality of tourism products is a vital necessity, both urgent and long-term in the development of tourism in Vietnam in general and Vinh Phuc in particular.

In fact, tourism products are considered a unique product with a high synthesis, including material and immaterial components. It is not a single product but a collection of many components, including: Infrastructure, technical tourism facilities, natural environment, tourism professional skills, social environment... Therefore, improving the quality of tourism products is a requirement but at the same time it is also an extremely difficult and complicated task.

To create quality and competitive tourism products is a big challenge for Vietnam in general and Vinh Phuc province in particular. One of the most important measures in this strategy is to promote tourism with the aim of promoting the image of Vinh Phuc land and people with unique and distinctive cultural features, creating tourist attraction, expanding and dominating the market.

3.2.1.2. Turn challenges into opportunities

Along with improving the quality of tourism products, tourism activities must also anticipate difficulties and challenges to be flexible and proactive in providing timely solutions, turning difficulties into opportunities, helping tourism develop quickly and sustainably.

It can be seen that the Covid-19 pandemic is really a shock to the Vietnamese tourism industry in the first months of 2020. Perhaps never in recent years has Vietnamese tourism been so gloomy when the number of international and domestic visitors has decreased seriously. According to the initial estimate of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the next three months (March, April, May 2020), the damage to the tourism industry will be about 5.9-7 billion USD. Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Le Hoai Chung said that this is a loss based on many immediate impacts, such as: China restricts citizens from traveling abroad; Vietnam does not bring or receive guests from epidemic areas, temporarily suspends festivals and activities at some historical sites and scenic spots; other international markets are afraid to come to Asia; domestic people limit travel...

For Vinh Phuc - the first province to record 11 cases of the disease, it was identified as the epicenter of Vietnam in the early days. Accordingly, tourism activities encountered many "storms" and difficulties. Key tourist areas such as Tay Thien scenic area, Tam Dao tourist area, Flamingo Dai Lai... saw the number of visitors decrease by 80-90%, even at times down to 95%. It must be noted that Vinh Phuc province is very determined in preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic. Along with the support of other countries, the infected cases in the province were soon cured, preventing the epidemic from spreading and breaking out on a large scale. However, that is not enough to revive tourism, helping tourism "revive".

At a time when the epidemic continues to develop complicatedly, what needs to be done to build the image of Vietnamese tourism in general and Vinh Phuc tourism in particular for state management agencies is to protect tourists from the impact of the epidemic and minimize economic losses for businesses and people involved in tourism. Together, businesses and people in the tourism industry, during the time of few visitors, even no visitors, focus on improving

Provide facilities, open training courses for staff... to improve service quality, waiting for a new tourist season in the future.

We should also consider this epidemic as an opportunity to help us gain more experience in the structure of the tourism industry and tourist market to suit and minimize damage from future risky situations...

Of course, to solve the problem, in addition to the efforts of the tourism industry, there needs to be participation, support and contribution from all levels and sectors, in which the press plays an important role in providing information about tourism.

3.2.2. Issues for the press on tourism topics

As mentioned above, tourism business has competition taking place not only within the national scope (between enterprises, localities) but also within the regional and world scope. In recent times, the tourism industry of Vietnam in general and tourism of Vinh Phuc province in particular have had relatively good tourism promotion and advertising campaigns through mass media, conferences, seminars, traditional festivals in localities... Thanks to that, the number of foreign tourists to Vinh Phuc is increasing, the number of domestic tourists is also growing quite significantly, the technical facilities serving tourism are increasingly developed, the quality of service is increasingly improved.

The problem for the tourism industry in Vinh Phuc province is that tourism information must be professional. These are new requirements for information, propaganda and promotion of tourism in the period of integration and development of the country in general and of Vinh Phuc province in particular.

Looking back at press activities through the survey process, the Central and local electronic newspapers have made many efforts in providing timely information about Vinh Phuc tourism, thereby providing the public with an overall picture, a comprehensive and comprehensive view of the tourism development process of Vinh Phuc province.

However, in the current context, along with the advantages are not small challenges for the team of journalists in Vinh Phuc. To perform well those tasks, press agencies in general, journalists in particular need to have a deeper awareness of their role in social life, raise awareness and responsibility of society, from there, have a direction of innovation to improve themselves in the environment.

The tourism industry has many opportunities but also many challenges as it is today.

3.3. Some solutions to improve the quality of information about Vinh Phuc tourism on central and local electronic newspapers

In order to improve the quality of information about Vinh Phuc tourism on the central and local electronic newspapers, according to the author of the thesis, there needs to be a synchronous solution from Vinh Phuc province and the press agencies. Below, the author goes into detail about some of the following solutions:

3.3.1. Solution group for Vinh Phuc province

For Vinh Phuc province, it is necessary to focus on the following solutions:

Sustainable tourism development

To have attractive articles for the public to promote Vinh Phuc tourism, first of all, Vinh Phuc tourism itself must be truly attractive. As we know, Vinh Phuc tourism has many "assets" that many other places do not have, typically Tay Thien scenic spot, Tam Dao tourist area, Flamingo Dai Lai Resort... It can be said that the natural beauty with poetic mountains and rivers in Vinh Phuc captivates people. That natural beauty needs to be preserved and protected in the best way. This requires Vinh Phuc province to develop sustainable tourism, although economic goals are very important, but not to the point of damaging tourism strengths. It is necessary to prioritize the preservation of natural beauty. We have also encountered many stories of people improperly interfering with natural landscapes because of prioritizing economic goals, such as: Building hanging towers, unreasonable resorts that destroy the inherent value of natural landscapes. We have seen public opinion opposing the encroachment of Tam Dao forest land for economic development... Therefore, Vinh Phuc province needs to have a comprehensive strategy and implement it effectively to develop sustainable tourism.

Building a culture of tourism

The majestic natural landscape is an outstanding advantage of Vinh Phuc tourism, but tourism culture, polite behavior of tourism workers, and beautiful lifestyle of local people are the long-term attractions that keep tourists staying or returning to Vinh Phuc. The press cannot promote tourism without beautiful images of tourism culture. The category of tourism culture can be very broad, in this thesis the author will discuss

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