Vietnam - Educating tourism workers helps reduce rip-offs

First of all, thank you TuoiTreNews for stories exposing scams by local businesses at tourist destinations and naming potential helpers in different perspectives.

Every tourist visiting Vietnam is that country’s ambassador. The messages he or she takes home and shares with others through phone calls, emails to friends and contacts or posts on the internet for a few billion of the 7 billion people in the world, can make or break the Vietnamese tourism industry.

As one of the stories mentioned: “A survey in 2009 shows that 95 percent don't come back again and the main reason cited being the constant overcharging and scamming they encounter on their travels. If the situation is not resolved completely, what will happen to the fate of Vietnamese tourism in the next 10 years?”

I hope the responsible authorizes and the media will find solutions soon to educate people who are earning a living from tourism. Let them know the damage they are causing, not only related to money but also related to the image and reputation of the country.

Of course, we don’t expect all to turn honest and decent overnight. Vietnam’s department of tourism can certainly come up with some smart ideas to encourage people to do the right thing. For example, make a Vietnam Tourism Trusted List, like we have the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in Canada. When everyone knows that word of mouth and negative reviews online can kill a business, the situation will probably improve.

Vietnamese ripping off tourists can most certainly change when and if they know that their pockets will be hurt in the long run. The government or local authorities like the People’s Committees in wards, districts and cities can come up with enlightened program to educate them, through the Vietnamese media and some kind of control mechanism, like listing reputable businesses or setting up a system to handle public complaints with phones and addresses published.

This is also a very simple matter of demand and supply. Tourists need to know where they can go so that they will not be ripped off. The government or local authorities might suggest some registered business owners that abide by the rules and regulations of not cheating tourists. Of course not all things will be perfect, but you need a starting point to encourage vendors to get better and smarter, for that’s the only way not to “lose 95%” of the tourists that came to Vietnam in 2009.

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