DISCUSSION ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AT GRAND SAIGON HOTEL POST COVID-19
, 30/12/2020 11:12
On Dec 23rd afternoon, continuing the activities of TOURIST* project, CVSEAS had a meeting with managers of the Grand Saigon Hotel, discussing developing sustainable tourism services post Covid-19.
Constructed in 1930, The Grand Hotel is one of the three most antique hotels located at the center of Ho Chi Minh City reminiscent of the French architecture. The hotel was built into two wings, one is Ancient and the other Luxury. The combination of two different styles in one complex can satisfy people’s needs when choosing the hotel for their stay in Vietnam.
Grand Saigon Hotel (Photo:hotelgrandsaigon.com)
Dr Tran Dinh Lam, Director of CVSEAS, VNUHCM USSH and TOURIST’s participants from the Faculty of Tourism, Ms Vu Thi Thanh Hien- Deputy Director and Mr Nguyen Thanh Hung- Head of Administration and Human Resources Office attended the meeting.
To start off the discussion, Dr Tran Dinh Lam briefly reported the aim and activities of TOURIST funded by Erasmus+. He also expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome from the Grand Hotel. During the meeting, students of the TOURIST project had a chance to raise their questions upon the Grand Hotel as well as the hospitality sector in Ho Chi Minh City. Answering students’ questions, the hotel’s representatives said that Grand Saigon hotel strictly followed the Covid-19 safety procedure regulated by the Ministry of Health, such as checking visitors’ temperature, using disinfectant alcohol to clean elevator’s buttons, doorknobs, car doors, etc. Owing to obeying the rules strictly, the hotel remained in operation until now.
Ms Hien (right), Mr Hung (left) and participants from CVSEAS in the meeting.
During the pandemic, the hotel almost had no international visitors, which was a huge disadvantage to an international market-oriented hotel like the Grand Hotel. To solve the problem, BODs of the hotel shifted from renting rooms as the main focus to restaurant services. Food events were organized at the hotel to introduce local specialties such as Ben Co thick noodle, bún suông Tra Vinh ( shrimp mixture shaped into noodle), steamed chicken with Ngoc Linh ginseng (Kon Tum), Nghe An eel soup, Trang Bang thick noodle soup (Tay Ninh), noodle with pork hock (Dak Lak), etc. In addition, the hotel offered special promotions and boosted MICE tourists (Meeting, Incentive, Conference, Event) to stimulate domestic travel demand post Covid-19, Huyen shared.
This showed that Grand hotel made great efforts to simultaneously maintain sustainability in the hospitality sector and contribute to the preservation and promotion of traditional Vietnamese cuisine over the world.
Besides, policies regarding the human resources management in the pandemic reflected practicality and humanities. Due to the pandemic, the number of visitors sharply decreased, leading to the drop in hotel revenue as well as jobs being cut down. However, the hotel policy allowed employees to continue working and flexibly working on shift so that they could do part-time jobs. This was one of the reasons helping the hotel retain their passionate and devoted staff.
At the end of the meeting, CVSEAS team was accompanied by Ms My Linh, Director of Marketing Department to have a hotel tour, visiting some rooms of both antique and modern area, conference room as well as wedding venue. CVSEAS was also informed that Grand hotel was beginning to use environmentally friendly equipment. For instance, electronic facilities were all energy saving, water was heated by solar energy, rubbish bins were made from used car tires, etc. Thanks to such action, the hotel has always earned good responses from its guests.
CVSEAS and hotel’s representatives taking a group photo.
Through the visit, the students have learnt and broadened their knowledge of both practical and theoretical lessons from the five-star hotel. Invaluable experiences taken from the visit are the financial - human resources management plan and radical changes to adapt to new situations. Those lessons are worth spreading and learning to help recover the tourism sector post Covid-19.
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