A report delivered at the workshop, jointly organised by the Saigon Innovate Hub (SiHub) and the Start-up Vietnam Foundation (SVF), showed that tourism has been identified as a spearhead economic sector in the near future, with the target of luring 17-20 million international tourists and serving 82 domestic holidaymakers by 2020.

Nguyen Quoc Ky, Director General of the Vietravel Company, underlined the need for research and development of start-up companies in tourism to secure domestic market share.

Participants stressed that amid the technological boom, start-up companies need to grasp the market’s trends and continuously innovate to offer highly competitive products, otherwise they will be merged or closed.

Sharing the view, SVF Managing Director Pham Duy Hieu said start-up companies should enable staff members to show their creativeness, thus offering products that can satisfy, even surprise customers.

At the workshop, delegates discussed measures to develop Vietnam’s tourism, including incentives to lure tourists and investment in infrastructure, building overseas tourism promotion offices and promoting regional connection.

In 2016, Vietnam’s tourism sector welcomed 10 million foreign arrivals and served 62 million domestic holidaymakers, representing 4.3-fold and 5.3-fold increases from the figures in 2001, respectively.