Twenty
travel companies were fined and another had its business licence revoked for 18
months for violating administrative regulations in travel business activities
in 2017, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
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corner of Ha Long bay, Quang Ninh province - Source: VNA
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The firms’ violations were
mainly failure to set up and store documents, use of tour guides without labour
contracts, lack of tour guides, and having no report of travel operations to
authorised agencies.
During the year, inspectors
from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducted inspections at 55
agencies in seven provinces and cities, namely Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kien
Giang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vinh Long, Tien Giang and Quang Ninh, which are popular
tourism destinations in the country.
A series of measures were
also taken to improve the quality of travel services and human resources; and
enhance inter-sectorial coordination and management work.
About 13 million foreigners
chose Vietnam as their holiday destination in 2017, a year-on-year rise of
nearly 3 million. Meanwhile, the sector served 73.2 million domestic
tourists. It earned 510.9 trillion VND (22.5 billion USD) from tourism
activities this year.
At a recent meeting in
Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the state steering committee
for tourism, asked the tourism sector to improve products, accommodation
facilities, manpower, while devising appropriate strategies and plans.
More attention should be
paid to quality, he noted, stressing that it must successfully carry out the
plan on restructuring the tourism sector so as to develop tourism into a
spearhead economic industry.
Source:
VNA