Tourism service workers are considered to be the extended arms of tourist attractions across Da Nang because they have direct contact with tourists every day, a part participating in the operation chain of the tourism industry, helping to spread the good things of these sites to tourists.

Staff at the Sun World Ba Na Hills Tourist Area are seen given guidance to visitors. Photo: THU HA

Every citizen is an ambassador tourism

Coming to Da Nang on the recent holiday, Ms. Vu Thi Kim Phuong's family from the capital city of Ha Noi felt very satisfied because during the family trip, in addition to information about tourist areas, attractions, and shopping sites in the city, she felt the closeness and friendliness in conversations with tourist coach drivers, food vendors or tourism staff at the destination. She said that it was the happiness and warmth of the service workers that created a lot of sympathy and ‘added value’ to the family trip, making her feel that every place in Da Nang very familiar.

Especially, not only Ms. Phuong, also many other visitors to Da Nang share the same feeling. This is attributed to the joint and unanimous efforts made by the municipal government, the tourism industry, other departments, agencies and branches as well as the business community and local people working towards the motto ‘every president acts as a tourism ambassador’.

The city’s tourism industry is very interested in raising awareness and responsibility of service businesses. Every year, the Da Nang Department of Tourism regularly coordinates with districts to organise training courses for local service businesses on commercial civilisation, behavioral skills, and communication with customers. For example, the staff of the Tourist Support Centre under the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre are on duty every day to assist tourists when needed. Thousands of customers came to ask for support and received help from enthusiastic experts.

During the recent 4-day holiday break for National Day (September 2) alone, the Tourist Support Centre supported more than 1,800 visitors who needed pieces of advice on attraction ticket prices and wanted to access information on holiday events, lost luggage and documents at the centre’s headquarters and its information counters at the Da Nang International Airport.

Ms. Vo Thi Phuong, the Head of the Son Tra District Culture and Information Department, said that as one of the key districts that attracts a large number of tourists with many businesses and households providing tourism services, to improve service quality as well as destination quality, Son Tra District has effectively implemented the ‘Code of Conduct in Tourism Activities’, distributed leaflets on the code of conduct in tourism activities in Da Nang to restaurant businesses, eateries and accommodation establishments across the district.

The district also recommends that food service establishments publicly list their selling prices, especially during major holidays, cultural and tourist events.

The locality also issued a plan for ‘Improving quality and service attitude at tourism service establishments, strengthening the management and rectification of travel activities and tourist guides across the district.

Spread good values

Along with tourism service businesses, tour guides are considered to be ambassadors who help the tourism industry spread good values. Mr. Ho Vu Hieu, the Head of Guide Department at the Da Nang branch of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that tour guides are not only tourism ambassadors but also messengers for tourist attractions.

According to Mr. Hieu, to become ambassadors to inspire tourists, tour guides must possess good knowledge and skills.  Tour guides must have a love for their jobs, tourist attractions, and an understanding of the land they want to introduce to their guests.

According to Chairman of the Da Nang Tour Guides’ Association Vo Van Anh when tourists come to new land, they all want to have new and different ranges of experience and the tour guide must convey that feeling to ther. To do so, tour guides must increase their qualifications, equip themselves with more updated knowledge and skills, deeply understand the destination, and bring good values to tourists.

“For the time being, Da Nang houses more than 5,000 tour guides in different languages. Each tour guide needs to do a good job of inspiring and conveying emotions to tourists, thereby contributing to promoting the friendly and attractive destination of Da Nang, helping tourists feel satisfied about this city.”, Mr. Vo Van Anh expressed.

According to Mr. Le Thien Tu, the Director of V.E.I Travel & Event Co., Ltd. (V.E.I), as a tourist city, in an attempt to attract more tourists, every tour guide, resident, and tourism service provider needs to understand more about the city where they live.

It is the friendly, welcoming gentle and polite attitude and behaviours by local residents and tourists that will be the highlight, creating an impression for tourists. This contributes to tourists' decisions about whether to return to a destination or not. Therefore, the city's tourism industry should have more skills and knowledge training courses so that tourism service workers can truly be ambassadors spreading good things to domestic and international tourists.

Reporting by THU HA - Translating by A.THU