Binh Thuan heads towards digitalization for Tourism Development

Tourism digitalization is trending

Going with the "flow", recently, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VHTT & DL) of Binh Thuan has deployed digitalization at historical sites, prominent scenic spots, shopping, dining, accommodation, travel establishments, tourism programs... on the Binh Thuan Smart Tourism Portal.

In particular, to improve the quality of images and content, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with technology units to mobilize tourism businesses in the province to participate in the digitization of tourism data using 360-degree VR virtual reality technology. Up to now, more than 40 businesses have participated in building and digitizing their products and services and posting them on media channels for promotion. At the same time, actively promoting statistics, collecting data and information and building a tourism industry database system synchronously, connecting with the province's general database system and specialized databases deployed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Notably, the Binh Thuan Tourism Department has coordinated with Viettel Binh Thuan to build and test the e-tourism trading platform with many features for introducing, promoting, buying and selling, trading tourism products and services online, organizing conferences, seminars, and online tourism fairs, and building online tourism tour programs... The e-tourism trading platform has attracted more than 50 tourism businesses in the province to introduce and promote products; it also has organized an online tourism fair having more than 100 businesses inside and outside the province and thousands of visitors.

Moreover, QR code stations have been installed at historical and cultural relic sites and scenic spots, helping tourists to easily use their smartphones to look up information and images of tourist destinations. At the same time, it has also developed connections with channels and social media to advertise the province's information, images and attractive tourism products.

Tourists scan QR codes by smartphone to get the destinations’ information

Future solutions

Digital transformation of the provincial tourism sector still has some shortcomings such as network infrastructure, hardware infrastructure (physical-technical), and human resources ... have not been guaranteed. Investment resources for digital transformation in the tourism sector are still limited; including financial resources and human resources.

In the coming time, Binh Thuan Tourism will continue to promote upgrading and developing the Binh Thuan Tourism Information Portal, ensuring full, vivid information and guidance about destinations, products tourism services are provided as well as processing the feedback from tourists; at the same time, developing applications to support tourists in booking, using and paying for services online, shopping, dining, entertainment, sports, travel, tour guides, etc. and creating multi-task travel cards that integrate the use of travel services and e-payments.

On the other hand, Binh Thuan's tourism industry is promoting the implementation of building data for the 360-degree VR Digital Map project such as updating, adding and completing digital tourism data to integrate with the province's digital tourism data system and the Vietnam tourism industry.

At the same time, AI technology, and big data analysis are applied in developing applications for data collection, synthesis, analysis, big data processing, market research, serving management, policy making, planning, professional decision making,..

In addition, the province is developing safe technology infrastructure and a high-speed internet connection, investing and constructing a synchronous and modern information infrastructure system, creating, and upgrading the information technology facilities.

Binh Thuan Tourism Industry encourages businesses and tourism service establishments to build and invest in a synchronous basic information technology infrastructure system, ensuring connectivity between the facilities' systems and the industry's common systems; at the same time, developing shared systems, platforms, and applications in the tourism sector integrating e-commerce allows businesses to connect, provide information, promote and sell their products, and allows businesses to access data for digital marketing.