Young tourists try automatic tour guide application on smartphone which is available at Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature). In the future, with one smart card, tourists will enjoy their trips and services. Photo courtesy of Temple of Literature's management board.

The VNAT signed an agreement with the e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency on Friday to apply advanced technology and e-commerce to develop tourism.

The move will allow people to book tours on a mobile app, said Hà Văn Siêu, vice chairman of the VNAT.

“The programme 'A National Card' will be launched connecting accommodations, tourists, travel agents, authorities and destinations. It will help tourists check out and pay for healthcare, entrance tickets, services and rooms.

“In the near future, this card will be issued to international tourists travelling to Việt Nam with an automatic card (for one-time use) at tourist sites, airports and train stations.

“The signing ceremony takes place on World Tourism Day (September 27) showing our determination to promote e-commerce in tourism in the context of strong digital economic activities,” Siêu said.

An app will be introduced to support tour guides and help tourists book said tour guides. A project called 'Dashboard' will be implemented to provide tourism information via smartphones.

On the same day in Hà Nội, RedDoorz, a technological platform for hotel management and booking, signed a deal with travel agents to develop the Vietnamese market.

CEO Amit Saberwal committed to help Vietnamese enterprises upgrade competitiveness and sustainable development.

In the first phase, RedDoorz will establish a technological centre in HCM City to operate rooms and apply new solutions to develop hotels in Việt Nam.

RedDoorz has been working with more than 1,200 partners from Southeast Asia countries, including 125 partners from Việt Nam in room sales and value management, marketing, branding, service standardisation and customer care.

Thanks to the technological platform, RedDoorz can anticipate customers’ needs for booking, helping hotels reduce vacancy rates, cut costs for booking channels and increase revenue.

A two- or three-star hotel in the RedDoorz network will be subject to strict quality control, giving tourists higher room quality and hotel staff at good prices.

More than 12.9 million foreign tourists have chosen Việt Nam as their destination over the last nine months, up 10.8 per cent year on year, according to the VNAT’s statistics.

In the nine months, visitors arriving by land increased the highest with 23.5 per cent, by air 8.3 per cent, and only by sea dropped 0.6 per cent. International visitors from Asia, Europe, America and Africa increased by 12.5 per cent, 5.3 per cent, 6.8 per cent, and 10.8 per cent, respectively, over the same period in 2018.

The remaining quarter of 2019 will be the high season for international tourists to Việt Nam, so the industry believes that it will achieve the goal. VNS