Only more than 40% of visitors to Hoi An old town bought tickets which caused losses, while the cost of preservation and human resources is large, so the authority works closely in selling entrance tickets.

From May 15, all visitors must buy tickets to visit the old town. President of Hoi An City, Nguyen Van Son, said that after the Covid-19 epidemic, there were many visitors, especially foreigners. Every day, there are about 15,000 people who make the old town become overcrowded. Most foreign visitors bought tickets, but many domestic visitors did not. Foreigners say that the street is overcrowded, which leads to the neighborhood landscape being unable to be contemplated.

According to statistics provided by Hoi An City People's Committee, in 2019 the city income was 295 billion VND. In the next three years from 2020 to 2022, due to the impact of Covid-19, the revenue had a sharp decrease to 44.3 billion VND, 1.45 billion and 32.1 billion VND respectively. 90% of revenue from selling tickets to the foreign tourists. The percentage of visitors buying tickets only account for about 40% of the total ones visited to the old town.

The revenue is used by the city in order to restore, preserve and promote the neighborhood's values, invest in cultural and artistic products and ensure security and order, and improve service quality. For many years, the loss of ticket sales has seriously affected revenue and led to lack of budget. Making ticket purchasing compulsory will partly solve this problem.

"In 2022, all revenue will be spent on restoring the old town, dredging the Hoai River and on improving security forces and tour guides. The city does not take money from ticket sales to spend on other things." Mr. Sn said.

According to Mr. Son, the price of 80,000 VND for domestic tourists and 120,000 foreign tourists is an affordable fee compared to Hạ Long Bay (200,000 to 250,000 VND), mausoleum and Huế Imperial City (150,000 to 200,000 VND), Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary. (100,000 - domestic guests and 150,000 VND - foreign guests).

Hoi An is a living heritage, so the management work is more difficult than other heritages. "Ha Long Bay is natural so there is no need to put in a lot of effort and investments. Or like My Son Sanctuary and the monuments in Hue just need to basically sell their tickets, while in Hoi An, to sell a ticket need a lot of management forces which would cost a lot of money," said Mr. Son.

Another reason is that some travel companies do not include the purchase of sightseeing tickets in the program which reduces the benefits of visitors and the quality of the tour is not guaranteed, guests don’t have the chance to listen to the introduction and find out cultural values. This also creates inequality among travel businesses. Currently, the travel agency that followed the authority’s instruction will face disadvantages that the ones that have illegal visitors don’t have to cope with.

Mr. Son said that in the past, Hoi An was considered by some foreign websites and newspapers as a "common destination". This is "very dangerous" because Hoi An's image will be degraded. "The purpose of Hoi An is for the tour company not to turn the old town into a free destination, not to strengthen the authority’s control," he said, adding that if it were to be as chaotic as it is now for a while. In that case, Hoi An will be severely affected.

In order to defend the image of Hoi An, the authority will invest a lot, focusing on improving infrastructure, all sanitation works, dredging the alluvial Hoai River, building wooden bridges from Le Loi to An Hoi because the An Hoi bridge is overloaded. The city will also prepare the landscape in order to avoid the scene of suddenly increasing prices.

Source: Vnexpress

Talking about the plan which includes selling tickets by the stream. This is a reasonable reorganization to avoid tourists and people entering and trading in the same way, leading to chaos. From now until May 15, the authority will do it step by step, meeting with travel agencies and listening to their opinions. After that, Hoi An authority will contact people to get opinions, listen to their plans, and give more advice. Local residents or entrepreneurs entering the old town to trade, have business relationships, and visit relatives are flexible.

Leaders of Hoi An City said that the implementation process if problems arise, will be gradually adjusted, not "drop". They also said that they would apply the digital conversion to identify people who need to visit and those who do not. "Hoi An's way of doing things will be gentle at first, there's no need to set up a barrier and send the police to keep it. Currently, public opinion is seriously understanding that it's not right," Mr. Son continued.

Source: VnExpress.