Component 1: Creating Sustainable Tourism Products with Small and Medium Sized Tourism Enterprises

Description: At the micro-level, Component 1 of the Program will support small and medium tourism companies and Business Support Organizations (BSOs) to strengthen their competitiveness and performance through developing tourism products applying sustainable tourism principles.

Main Objectives: Tourism companies / SMEs and BSOs in the tourism sector are able to develop competitive Sustainable Tourism models and products.

Approach for Activity Delivery and Institutionalization of Results:

- The Responsible Travel Club is our key business support organization and well positioned as a sector service and knowledge provider to facilitate the expansion of ST development support to SMEs throughout Vietnam. The project will work closely with the RTC to strategically position and strengthen the RTC in emerging as the leading BSO supporting ST amongst SMEs in Vietnam.

- Targeted technical assistance will be delivered directly to carefully selected and committed SMEs in support of sustainable tourism initiatives designed to enhance their competitiveness. These piloting efforts will create innovative and financially viable models yielding important lessons that will facilitate future replication.

- Other Business Support Organizations the Program aims to work with - and for which important groundwork has been undertaken by a BSO Consultants’ Team -  are the Tourism Associations of the designated pilot provinces (Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Can Tho). These Associations will form the link between efforts to mainstream ST on National Level (e.g. Tourism Development & Marketing Plans and Strategies by MCST, VNAT, TAB and ITRD) and Tourism SMEs on local level. After all, provinces are concerned with development of Socio-Economic Development Plans, including Tourism, that translate national policies into corresponding provincial ones, impinging straight away on the daily operations of locally operating SMEs.

- Corporate supporters already conducting best practices in sustainable business operations have been enlisted as mentors willing to share experience, programs and advice to the SMEs and the RTC throughout the course of the project.

- Main Corporate Supporters include:

• Exo Travel – One of Indochina’s leading Tour Operators, highly engaged in transforming the tourism industry into a more sustainable business, a/o by developing international ‘best practices’; a ST Sharing Information Platform (together with Kiri, another ST Tour Operator) and Sustainability Criteria for Suppliers of their Value Chains, notably Accommodation Providers.
• TMG/Victoria Hotels – A conglomerate of, locally owned and established tourism related business, of which Victoria Hotels is one of its flagships. The hotels have been actively experimenting with ST application in their enterprises for over a decade, thereby gathering a wealth of knowledge about ‘do’s and don’ts’ of ST.
• Muong Thanh Hotel Group – A rapidly expanding National Chain of 4 to 5- star Hotels that has shown great willingness to apply ST measures to improve its competitiveness
• Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel – A 5-star unit of the world renowned Hilton Chain that is highly active in applying ST practices, with emphasis on Energy and Water Savings & Efficiencies, as well as Solid & Food Waste Management. Hilton’s ST endeavors are driven globally, though individual hotels may choose their own preferences, pending local circumstances, opportunities and regulations.

- We believe that this combination of actors provides a complete incubator ecosystem to launch innovative and viable sustainable models of tourism development, while institutionalizing project efforts into building the RTC into a relevant and reliable BSOs to serve the sector.

Component 2: Human Resource Development for Sustainable Tourism

Description: At the meso-level, Component 2 of the Program will support the development of national human capital through skills development and the institutionalization of Sustainable Tourism Training programs in six institutions and the development on as Executive Hospitality Education program in a major university.

Main Objectives: Vietnamese training institutions are able to deliver quality Sustainable Tourism practices training to tourism companies/SMEs and BSOs. And develop an Executive Hospitality Education program with international certification to provide quality skilled workers and managers in the sector.

Approach for Activity Delivery and Institutionalization of Results:

- Targeted technical assistance will be delivered to and institutionalized in carefully selected and committed training institutions as direct development and implementation counterparts. The Sustainable Tourism Training will target small and medium enterprises and business support organizations. These training materials, curriculums and delivery approaches will be based on direct inputs from the small and medium enterprise and institutionalized into the curriculums of local training institutions.

An Executive Hospitality Education program will be developed in conjunction with the Swiss International Management Institute and a national university to provide international-level training for aspiring managers in the hospitality sector.

Include Key Implementation, strategic and corporate sponsors

Hanoi Tourism College

Pegasus International College

Can Tho Tourism College

Da Nang Tourism College

Dong A University

Saigon Tourism College

Hanoi University

Component 3: National Level Support for Sustainable Tourism Development

Description:  At the macro-level: Component 3 of the Program will facilitate the integration of sustainable tourism practices into framework conditions (e.g. enforcement of new law on tourism) to create an enabling environment for a competitive and sustainable tourism sector.

Main Objectives: Government agencies at central and local level are capable to jointly with the private sector prepare and translate Sustainable Tourism practices into favorable framework conditions and to start to provide an enabling environment for strengthening the international competitiveness of the tourism sector (macro level).

Approach for Activity Delivery and Institutionalization of Results:

- Targeted assistance will be delivered to agencies and organizations directly involved in, or best positioned to deliver meaningful impacts for, each of the three sub-components of this Outcome area. Technical advice and other forms of support will be based on the demands of these implementation partners and delivered through capacity building and institutional strengthening approaches.

- These implementation partners will also be considered BSOs given their national-level status and position to provide ongoing support to these initiatives.

Include Key Implementation, strategic and corporate sponsors

Tourism Advisory Board