At yesterday’s workshop on minimizing plastic waste in tourism, many solutions and criteria to reduce the problem of plastic waste and develop sustainable tourism were presented.

At the workshop, General Secretary Vu Quoc Tri of the Vietnam Tourism Association said that the country’s tourism sector has worked out a development strategy for 2030 for sustainable development and inclusive tourism based on green growth. Under the strategy, by 2030, the tourism sector will truly become a spearhead economic sector and develop sustainably. Vietnam will become a particularly attractive destination, belonging to the group of 30 countries with the world's leading tourism competitiveness, fully meeting the requirements and goals of sustainable development.

To contribute to achieving this goal, the Vietnam Tourism Association has launched a project to minimize plastic waste in Vietnam's tourism sector in collaboration with the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment with the sponsorship and accompaniment of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). After nearly 1.5 years of implementation, the project has promoted plastic waste reduction activities in tourism, contributing to environmental protection and tourism development.

At the workshop, representatives of the Vietnam Tourism Association talked about the criteria for recognizing plastic-free tourism businesses with the chief goal that all tourist areas, accommodation establishments and hotels will not use non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plastic products by 2025.

To achieve this, the Vietnam Tourism Association also put forward several tasks such as the development, dissemination and monitoring of the implementation of policies and laws on plastic waste reduction in tourism while implementing the criteria for recognizing plastic-free tourism businesses and applying (App) plastic waste management to tourism businesses. Simultaneously, the association will also develop green tourism products without plastic waste and promote tourism promotion activities associated with plastic waste reduction.

At the workshop, experts from the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment also suggested a number of solutions to minimize plastic waste such as bringing a person’s personal water bottle and refilling instead of using bottled water which will be discarded later, bringing a shopping bag or using a reusable bag when shopping, using leaves to wrap food, dispose of garbage in the right place, collect and classify garbage at homes, workplaces, event venues.