The Guide magazine, a travel and hospitality magazine in Vietnam, has for the past eight years made awards to the providers of the best products and services for travellers, hotel guests, diners and shoppers in Vietnam.
One aim has been to promote competition on the basis of quality. Vietnam is a developing country where the honour of serving customers has tended to be won through invisible Vietnamese business relationships. Quality has often not gone deeper than ritual hyperbole. Standards have regularly been got round – especially on environmental questions.
So readers’ votes in The Guide Awards – on-line or on the form in the magazine – help give direction to Vietnamese enterprise.
Readers are asked to name the places where they have come across, for example, a charming check-in, a stupendous baked Alaska or an easily accessible life jacket. They are asked to explain exactly what they liked and why. Negative comments are also welcome.
The Guide, itself part of the developing-world business environment, has recently been questioned as to why an award has gone to a certain enterprise. One recent case involved a so-called good hotel where there were cigarette-burns in the tablecloths. Closer investigation of nominations has been instigated.
Readers’ comments must be true, fair and in the public interest. They are checked by The Guide’s editors and reporters. Readers making the most useful comments will receive prizes of valuable and useful Vietnamese products.
Awards are decided by the executive of The Guide, in consultation with travel, hotel, restaurant and shopping experts, including representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Guide Awards also act as an indicator of quality in a wide range of places, products and services – anything from a skating-rink to a dragon-fruit plantation or a nail-decoration salon.
Votes (any number) can be made on this page or by filling in a form in The Guide magazine. The magazine is available from the first week of every month at all excellent venues.
|
|
|
