Bridging the Leadership Gap in Vietnam's Tourism Sector

The Saigon Tourism College was established in 1991 and stands as a pioneer in the industry. It was one of Vietnam's first training institutions to provide specialized, official training in hospitality and tourism. It was also one of the first private training institutions in Ho Chi Minh City, founded at the onset of the Đổi Mới (Renovation) era when the private sector was growing. The college has since developed alongside the country’s development, becoming a vital source of human resources for the hospitality sector in Vietnam's most vibrant economic center and its surrounding provinces.

A program that demanded investment

While the college had benefited from traditional bilateral projects, the Swiss Tourism for Sustainable Development (ST4SD) project, with its Swiss Executive Hospitality Training (Swiss EHT), immediately captured the attention of Ms. Ngô Thị Quỳnh Xuân, Principal of Saigon Tourism College. Her surprise was rooted in the program's unique approach: It was not free, which is rare in Vietnam.

Ms. Xuân said, “It was not the normal formula often used by other projects: receiving funds for free and implementing it as guided by the donors.” The college was required to develop a comprehensive proposal, demonstrating their ideas, capacity and commitment to implementing the program.

A dream to bridge the leadership gap

What impressed Ms. Xuân most was the core approach and goal of the Swiss EHT: addressing the critical leadership gap in Vietnamese hospitality. "I have been working in the field of hospitality training for a long time," she explained. “I observed that most of the high positions in hotel management are occupied by foreigners. I always wondered why — we are in Vietnam, and we have immense human resources. I realized it was because we lacked the capacity to provide adequate training to develop management-level talent."

Having previously visited the world-renowned EHL Hospitality Business School and been deeply impressed by their curriculum and reputation, she had long held a wish to work with them. "It was like a dream for me to know that the ST4SD project works with the EHL to bring the Swiss EHT program to Vietnam. It aims at the management level for working in hospitality — exactly what Vietnam needed at the time. I told my staff this is a great opportunity, and we have to make it work for the college.”

The catalyst: Introducing Swiss EHT standards

The efforts of institutions like Saigon Tourism College are addressing a critical national issue: Vietnam’s tourism sector is hampered by a significant shortage of qualified human resources. Nearly 85% of new hires require massive upskilling, and 100% of surveyed 4- and 5-star hotels confirm the need for extensive retraining (six months to one year). The hospitality sector also suffers from a chronic shortage of qualified middle managers (a gap widened by COVID-19), with each manager playing a pivotal role by supervising around ten staff.

While women make up most operational staff in hospitality, they hold only about 10% of top management roles. Executive training is therefore a key opportunity for inclusion, providing women with visibility, recognized credentials and flexible learning that supports their progression into supervisory roles and strengthens sustainable leadership. 

The Swiss EHT program, launched in early 2025, is the catalyst for immediate impact. The target audience is strategically focused on managers and aspiring managers. This includes current hospitality professionals looking to skill up, students and recent graduates aiming for international certification, and SMEs and corporations seeking to improve service quality.

The curriculum focuses on essential managerial and technical skills like financial management, risk management, service excellence, and both verbal and non-verbal communication. Core modules are structured across three pillars:

• Service excellence: covering communication and basic sustainability practices
• Sustainable operations: delving into food and beverage and room division sustainability
• People and leadership: focusing on sustainable leadership and team development

This design ensures graduates are well-equipped for the international hospitality industry, while becoming leaders in the sector's environmentally conscious future.

Swiss EHT unpacked: Delivering practical expertise

The core mission of Swiss EHT is to equip Vietnam's future leaders in the field of hospitality with the tools for exceptional, sustainable service. This includes enhancing quality through Swiss standards, integrating sustainability principles, and bridging the gap between theory and practical application.

The curriculum is built for working professionals and uses a hybrid learning model (70-80% online, 20-30% in-person) with flexible scheduling. This model makes premium, EHL-certified education accessible. The flexibility — including online learning, as well as evening and in-person classes during the weekends — specifically supports women with young children, allowing them to participate in the training more easily.

To ensure long-term viability, Swiss government subsidies are being phased out, with the program becoming completely self-sufficient by 2027 when the project closes. This approach builds ownership and sustainability and strongly aligns with Helvetas’ priorities for market-based and scalable interventions.

Becoming a pioneer in implementation

Saigon Tourism College became one of the most active training institutions in the Swiss EHT program, joining three other core institutions in the pilot phase. They were the first four in the country selected to participate, sending three staff members to the Master Instructors’ Course to build up the program and becoming core master trainers.

The need for localization was quickly identified. "The training is very up-to-date and practical," Ms. Xuân noted. "But the original design was in English and for people who can speak English. Our market does not only focus on Ho Chi Minh City. We also work in provinces in the south of Vietnam, where people’s English is limited." Discussing this challenge with the project led to a crucial adaptation. "I really appreciate the flexibility of the program," she said, referring to the combined English and Vietnamese training that made the program accessible to a much wider audience.

Expanding the EHT footprint

The Saigon Tourism College has been applying the Swiss EHT flexibly and strategically. They have successfully deployed the Swiss EHT Foundation course in Đồng Tháp in cooperation with the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Plans are underway to expand to Lâm Đồng, targeting the high-demand areas of Đà Lạt and Phan Thiết and then to Vĩnh Long in the Mekong Delta, a key tourism hub. The college is also integrating the Swiss EHT’s best practices immediately to upgrade its core training curriculum for current students.

“I found it very interesting to bring the course to the provinces,” said Ms. Xuân. “In Đồng Tháp, it was not only the people working in hotels and resorts who registered for the course. The government staff who manage the tourism policy in the province also participated.”

Ms. Xuân sees the trainings in Đồng Tháp, Lâm Đồng, and Vĩnh Long as the first "concrete bricks" to build the program's reputation in the south of the country.

“I see a lot of good signals,” she said. “When we organized the training in person in Đồng Tháp, a typhoon and severe flood threatened the area, but participants still went to the training. They are eager to learn and better equip themselves. In Lâm Đồng, some human resources from hotels even wanted to register simultaneously for all three Swiss EHT courses: Foundation, Intermediate, and Advance.”

The college is also planning to offer the first internal Swiss EHT course for their graduating students.

Institutional recognition and future horizons

The program’s initial success is built on 17 EHL-certified master trainers and four pilot institutions across Vietnam. Diversity among training institutions encouraged innovation and helped raise awareness about the value of continuous executive education, which is still a new concept in Vietnam.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism has already included Swiss EHT certificates in the process for increasing hotel star rankings, effectively making the Swiss EHT standard a benchmark for quality improvement.

In just six months, the Swiss EHT program has rapidly established itself, training nearly 200 hotel professionals and expanding to four key provinces in Vietnam. Beyond these impressive metrics, participants highly value the interactive learning and are eager to enroll in advanced modules, solidifying the Swiss EHT's reputation as a vital "journey of change."

The program is set to expand across Vietnam's three geographical hubs — South, Central, and North — with the number of learners expected to increase significantly in 2026. The hope is that this model will contribute significantly to Vietnam’s sustainable tourism development by raising training quality to meet and exceed international standards.

About the Authors

Le Thi Huong Lien is the Communications Manager for the ST4SD project.

Dang Thi Phuong Anh is the Human Resources Development Manager for the ST4SD project.