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Tourists misunderstand our entrance fee, says Hoi An official
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Hoi An officials are doing their utmost to quell the public furor over their recent enforcement of an entrance fee policy for the ancient town.
In an interview with an online newspaper, Hoi An town’s Party Secretary, Mr. Nguyen Su, argues that some tourists misunderstand the purpose of the town’s entrance fee. The local government has invested a great deal in building cultural spaces to serve tourists, and the fee is an effort to recoup that investment and allow those spaces to be maintained.
Q: In early April, Hoi An ancient town set up entrance ticket checkpoints on the way to the old streets. Many visitors and residents do not agree with this move, arguing that many historical sites in the old quarter collect fees already. Could you explain this new policy?
A: The collection of entrance fees to Hoi An has been conducted since 1995. However, the entrance fees were only collected through travel companies that organize tours to the ancient town. This decision was made simply because the old town is a complex of historical sites, not single historical sites.
We have also done our best to preserve the town to serve tourists through regularly organizing activities such as the night in the old town, the pedestrian streets, the city without engines and others events. All of these products are created by Hoi An people for visitors to enjoy the cultural space in the town, so selling entrance tickets is completely justified and necessary.
However, the reality is that several travel companies did not purchase entrance tickets for their visitors, and that was unfair for other travel firms that did. When we tightened the ticket rules, some visitors misunderstood and made comments on the Internet, which distorted Hoi An’s image.
Q: Why did so many travelers have severe reactions?
A: Our investigation shows that some staff at checkpoints did not have the proper attitude when they stopped tourists to collect the fees. This made visitors feel offended so they had that reaction. Another problem is that some visitors who had already purchased tickets were wrongly required to purchase tickets again when they came back to the old quarter.
For our part, we realize there were many shortcomings in the implementation of this policy, which caused inconvenience for travelers.
Q: What will Hoi An do to deal with these problems?
Hoi An was quiet at night after the entrance fee policy was tightened. Photo LekimbachkhoaArtist.
A: It would be foolhardy to destroy the image of Hoi An in the eyes of visitors just because of this entrance fee. We have to correct the faults in collecting the fees, while ensuring visitor satisfaction.
First of all, we will correct the attitudes of employees at the ticket checkpoints. At the same time we will explain to ticketless visitors who have bought tours to Hoi An about the ticket policy, because they may not know that they are victims of unscrupulous travel companies.
Q: How are the revenues from the entrance fees used?
A: We will spend 85 percent of the revenues on the restoration of the old houses that are not yet listed as tourist destinations but are located in the old town.
Actually there are more than 1,000 old houses in Hoi An, but only 21 have been designated as historic relics, which collect entrance fees. Therefore, the revenue from entrance tickets only meets about 40 percent of the funding for restoration.
Meanwhile, loss from entrance tickets is over 40 percent. On average, each year Hoi An welcomes nearly 2 million visitors but last year we sold only 800,000 tickets.
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