Tourists boom, tourism industry lacks personnel, guides have to be waiters

According to statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, during the three-day anniversary of the ancestors’ death anniversary, the tourist attractions welcomed and served about 3 million domestic visitors, of which about 1.6 million guests stayed.

It is the booming number of visitors that has caused the tourism industry to freeze after two years because of COVID-19 and just reopened just one month ago, revealing many shortcomings.

According to many tour guides, due to a sharp increase in the number of tourists, while tourist facilities have not been able to recruit enough professional personnel after a long period of closure, they are overloaded and serve unprofessionally. prior to. In many situations, in order to fight a fire, the tour guides must concurrently play the role of service staff, waiters… in order to please visitors.

“In the past, the ships in Ha Long would have about 5 people for a fleet, now there are only 2 to 3 people. My colleagues and I have to work as both waiters and waitresses so that customers don’t have to wait too long. This has never happened before, but it is understandable, because tourism has just reopened. Although it’s the peak of the holiday season and summer, so the number of visitors is crowded, but I don’t know how long it will be maintained in the future? Not to mention when the epidemic will end. That is why many businesses and establishments do not dare to expand their activities or hire more employees for fear of opening and closing again as many times before. The capital that has already been spent can’t be recovered, so their calculation of personnel is correct“, said Le Van Thanh, a tour guide in Hanoi.

According to Mr. Le Dinh Ban – tour guide in Hai Phong, another difficulty for tour guides is that because many localities are still in the state of opening up for tourism, many restaurants and shops sell souvenirs. Concept is still sparse, poor, making tour guides have to work very hard to please “God”.

“I just took tourists to Cao Bang, where the facilities are not as diverse as other tourist areas, after the epidemic, they are even more lacking. The food service point is up to 40-50km from the tourist area, making the travel time very difficult, most of the guests have to sit in the car.

Besides, for customers who want to buy souvenirs as gifts, it is even more difficult. Because this place has only one place for sale, customers who want to buy must buy from the first day or let the guide arrange the route reasonably. Otherwise, you can’t go hundreds of kilometers to buy gifts“, said Mr. Ban.

Mr. Ban also said that coastal tourism has improved after the number of tourists returned from the holiday of Hung King’s death anniversary. In recent days, many tourism service businesses have added enough human resources to serve the increasing number of tourists. Although the number has increased, the quality of personnel is not good. This also affects the quality of the tour because tourists who are not satisfied with anything in the tour are complaining to the guide and the travel agency.

A representative of an enterprise admitted that, after being overwhelmed at the Hung Kings ancestral holiday and to prepare for the upcoming holiday of April 30, many travel agencies and tourism establishments are rushing to prepare again for the holiday. floors, recruiting more staff to welcome an explosive number of guests. However, finding staff is not easy because the tourism industry has been interrupted for too long.