Buzz
In light of the incident at the Vietnam Tourism booth in a German expo, where images of the Lạc Sơn Đại phật (China) were mistakenly used, the Tourism General Department explained that it was a result of confusion during booth construction and has called for an investigation into specific individuals.
Executing a tourism promotion program, the Tourism General Department collaborated with Vietnam Airlines and 26 travel businesses participating in the ITB - Berlin 2013 fair, taking place from March 6 to 10.
At the fair, Vietnam Airlines took the lead in booth construction and hired a contracting unit. The images displayed at the booth were provided by the Tourism General Department. In the shared booth of the tourism industry, besides the overall decoration and space for Vietnam Airlines, the Tourism General Department arranged 13 workstations for the 26 participating businesses to meet and conduct trade.
On March 6th, before the fair's opening, the Tourism General Department's team discovered that one of the illustrative pictures placed under a business table was not a Vietnamese landscape, nor an image provided by the Tourism General Department. The team resolved the situation by affixing a map of Vietnam and requesting Vietnam Airlines to replace the image.
According to the Tourism General Department, the contracting unit explained that, as they simultaneously built booths for multiple countries, it led to the confusion.
While handling the incident, an enterprise officer at the booth across from the Vietnam Tourism booth took a photo and posted it on their personal Facebook. The working delegation met and requested the officer to explain. He removed the photo and related information from Facebook.
According to some representatives of businesses participating in the ITB Fair, the confusion over images of Chinese landmarks was quickly resolved, so some people might not even be aware. There were also no foreign tourists inquiring about buying tours to China, as reported by some news outlets.
Leaders of the Tourism General Department consider this a profound lesson for the industry in the process of implementing promotional activities for tourism domestically and internationally. The Department has demanded strict scrutiny, learning from experiences, close supervision, and control of information and images during the preparation and participation in international travel fairs.
The Tourism General Department will also collaborate with Vietnam Airlines to draw lessons and review the coordination process, cooperation, and clearly define the responsibilities of the relevant groups and individuals.
Source: VnExpress
MytourJuly 2, 2013
