HCM City (VNA) - Socialplatforms are effective channels where online tourism firms interact withpotential customers, and the travel industry must transform to keep pacewith technological changes, experts have said.

La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Tourism, said thefourth industrial revolution is making its way into people’s lives, with almostevery device being connected with the internet, representing a new way ofcommunicating and doing business.

With Industry 4.0, the tourism industry must figure out how to adopt newtechnologies to engage with a customer and gain market share, he told an onlinetourism forum held on April 13 in HCM City as part of the HCM City TourismFair.

Vietnam ended 2017 with GDP growth of 6.8 percent, Huynh Bich Tran, deputydirector of Nielsen Vietnam, a global information and measurementcompany, said.

The service sector also saw significant growth, and contributing to this wasincreasing tourism and a number of government initiatives, she said.

The number of domestic tourists reached 73 million last year, a year-on-yearincrease of 20 percent, while the number of foreign tourists rose by 30 percentto 13 million. 

Vietnamese consumer confidence finished 2017 on a high note as Vietnam continuedto be ranked as the seventh most optimistic country in the world, according tothe latest issue of the Conference Board Global Consumer Confidence Survey donein collaboration with Nielsen.

There was a sustained high confidence level among Vietnamese consumers through2017, the survey found.

Vietnamese consumers were eager to spend on big ticket items to enhance thequality of life. Nearly half of all consumers were willing to spend their sparecash on buying new clothes (49 percent) and on holidays (44 percent).

There were 23 million “connected” spenders – referring to people who haveaccess to the internet -- in Vietnam in 2015 and the number is expected tonearly double to 40 million by 2025, according to Nielsen.

By 2025 their spending is expected to account for a half of all consumerspending.

Smartphones sustain the growth momentum as usage and ownership keep increasingin Vietnam.

According to the 2017 Nielsen Vietnam Smartphone Insights Report, the number ofpeople using smartphones accounted for 84 percent of all phone users in 2017compared to 78 percent a year earlier.

In secondary cities, 71 percent of people use smartphones out of the 93 percentthat use mobile phones.

More notably, in rural areas, while 89 percent of the population own a mobilephone, 68 percent of them possess a smartphone.

Social media could be a channel to bring customers to online tourismenterprises, and optimising access for connected customers holds the key tosuccess, Tran said.

Some sources that customers consult before using services include social media(60 percent), friends and relatives (48 percent) and online travel forums (45percent), she said.

The feedback and comments on forums from earlier customers have a strong effecton the decision of new customers, she added.

According to Jennifer Chau, business manager of Facebook Vietnam, on averageVietnamese customers spend three hours a day on mobile phones, more than onnewspapers (56 minutes), television (1.4 hours) or radio (43 minutes).

It is expected that by 2021 half of online tourism revenues would come frommobile phones.

"There are 59 million active Facebook users in Vietnam, with 97 percent ofthem using smart phones to browse," she said.

All travellers are users of social platforms and Facebook is the top socialplatform, according to Chau.

Creative videos with good contents are the most effective way to touchpotential customers.-VNA