New sustainable tourism practice – More Sustainable and Inclusive  for Vietnam Tourism

PERIOD:  2023 – 2027

INTRODUCTION

To support Vietnam’s tourism sector becomes more sustainable and inclusive, The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) officially funded to the Project “Sustainable Tourism Development” (ST4SD) in the period of 2023 – 2027 and for vision  2027 – 2031. To implement the project, The Center for Rural Economy Development is the only Vietnamese organization selected to consortium with three Swiss partners: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation; EHL Hospitality Business School (formerly known as École hôtelière de Lausanne); and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU).

KEY STAKEHOLDERS  

• Vietnam National Administration of Tourism – VNAT
• People’s Committees of provinces/cities where the project is implemented (destination clusters)
• Tourism associations at national and subnational level, Tourism Advisory Board, Tourism Development Fund.
• Vocational as well as management/hospitality and tourism education institutions in both public and private sectors.
• Tourism pioneering businesses in transforming sustainable service models.

OUTCOMES: CRED leads the implementation of Outcome 2 and Outcome 3

• Outcome 1: Supporting national policy makers to foster sustainable tourism – National and subnational action plans, master plans and other policies;
• Outcome 2: Vietnamese training institutions have been strengthened to provide training and develop skills and expertise in sustainable tourism;
• Outcome 3: Tourism destinations and companies have become more sustainable in their operation and investments.

LOCATION

The project is expected to deploy three destination clusters in three regions of North, Central and South Vietnam (each cluster of 02 provinces/cities)

APPROACH

• The combination between the sharing of experience and expertise of the Swiss partners (HSLU) and  the feeding concrete experiences from the field at sub-national level to support the national policy makers to creat fora for Public-Private Policy Dialogue (including create new and strengthen existing mechanisms) to foster sustainable tourism;
• A Executive Hospitality Training (EHT) Programme led by the private sector with the involving of Vietnamese partner institutions, where the interrelationships between education institutions and the private sector which co-contribution to improve quality and move towards commercialization of training programs;
• Using the Sustainable Tourism Criteria and Indicators (STC&I) tool to diagnose the strengths and weakness of tourism businesses. A long with this, the visitor flow methodology approach for destination management will be used as the main tool to understand current and future market potential.

KEY EXPECTED RESULTS

• National and subnational action plans, master plans and other policies include relevant actions and decisions are taken and implemented to foster sustainable tourism development;
• A locally established network of international, Swiss and Vietnamese tourism experts with specific expertise will be developed;
• Tourism cooperation between localities in Vietnam is enhanced through the EHT Programme, in which the active involving of key stakeholders from the public, private and social sectors civil society in the proposed destination clusters.
• Creat a long-lasting impact through an eventual change in mind-sets and behaviours and emergence of new sustainable tourism practices that lead to improved livelihoods and quality job creation