Travel reinstatement and attempts to escape the COVID-19 cyclone

The year 2020 - 365 days during which the worldwide tourism industry has suffered and the phrase "shut down" continuously appears in tourist destinations due to the Covid pandemic. So what is the "opening door" solution for sustainable tourism development?

Recently, many projects, ideas and solutions to reinstate tourism have attracted the attention of many people. Following the trend, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City - The Institute of Smart Cities and Management (ISCM) cooperates with professors and experts from universities: Hasselt University (Belgium), Thammasat University (Thailand), Handong Global University (Korea), Ton Duc University Thang and Technical Education University (Vietnam) organize an online international webinar & workshop week with the theme: “Global strategies for local tourism” taking place from March 1 to March 5, 2021.

"New normal" tourism

Choosing the theme "Global strategies for local tourism", experts from many countries will come together to discuss and come up with ideas with the desire to reinstate a “new normal” traveling and aim at the long-term development of livable, friendly cities.

One of the difficult questions that experts face is: What is the solution to reinstate and the connection between the world’s cities while maintaining its own identity? For this reason, Covid-19 has had a very strong impact on us, as anti-epidemic measures have restricted us from going out, concurrently the physical distance reveals the need of human rights about space in a strong manner, which makes the connection and joint hands between cities becoming increasingly vital and urgent.

Sharing webinar by experts with the theme "Future City: Tourism Resilience for the post-pandemic world."

Besides, not only developing in quantity but also for tourism in general, urban development in particular also needs to pay attention to quality development and pave the way towards sustainable development. Make cities a livable, friendly place for global citizens while ensuring a balance between humans and nature.

How do young people say and act?

Accompanying the workshop & webinar week was the participation of students from 6 domestic and foreign universities to listen and be heard through the lenses of young people on the common global issues and support future generations to inherit those intellectual values.

Sustainable development can be understood as the development that meets the needs of the present without affecting future generations’ needs (roughly translating the meaning of the UN definition). Therefore, the student's contribution is extremely necessary and the organizers believe that new perspectives and modern thinking will contribute significantly in bringing tourism out of the downturn spiral.

Students from different countries will be divided into groups, working together and giving opinions and ideas on topics towards sustainable tourism such as:

Heritage & identity
Publicness & nature
Daily life & hospitality
Local ceremony & creativity

Group presentations based on selected topics

Students presented many creative and unique ideas with passion and enthusiasm based on detailed analysis from case studies in Brussels (Belgium), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Bangkok (Thailand), and Pohang (Korea). International webinar & workshop week 2021 is the opening foundation for a series of activities in SmartCity+ event organized by the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City - Institute of Smart Cities to raise awareness of young people, especially Gen Z generation, on issues of urban in general and tourism in particular.

News, photo: Institute of Smart Cities and Management.