At the seminar “Solutions for the breakthrough of the tourism industry” organized by Người lao động newspaper on the morning of March 12, Mr. Vo Viet Hoa – Director of Saigontourist International Tourism – raised a question about the increase in international tourists to Vietnam, which is true, but how many of them are pure tourists?
Mr. Hoa pointed out that although international tourists have increased, travel companies still lack customers in practice.
Mr. Hoa analyzed that according to statistics, the number of Korean tourists to Vietnam has increased significantly in the past year and early 2024, but Vietnamese businesses have not benefited because they cannot provide complete package services. Saigontourist, for example, only provides car rental services, which are very basic.
As for Japan, the number of tourists coming to Vietnam has not increased because the people of this country are tightening their spending and being cautious about traveling abroad. Vietnam is also not an attractive destination for Japanese tourists like Thailand, Australia, Europe or South Korea,…
There is more optimism with Chinese tourists when Mr. Hoa shared that recently, Saigontourist has served the high-end and premium market segments from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou with cruises. According to Mr. Hoa, this is a large market with diverse needs. However, after 2 years of waiting, Chinese tourists did not explode as expected, but it may be better in 2024 when China has tourism promotion policies.
 More attractive visa policies are needed to attract and bring back tourists. Photo: Thach Thao |
Unfortunately, Chinese tourists do not see Vietnam in particular and ASEAN in general as their main destinations.
As for aviation, according to Ms. Pham Thanh Giang, Director of Sales and Marketing – Marketing and Product Sales Department (Vietnam Airlines), international tourists coming to Vietnam accounted for only 90% in 2019.
The reason, Ms. Giang pointed out, is that major markets such as China and Russia have not been fully tapped into. The number of Japanese tourists has also decreased. Vietnam Airlines is trying to compensate for the shortage by preparing to open new routes to the Philippines and Germany in June, hoping to welcome more new customers.
Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Dung, representative of Sungroup Corporation, shared that in the past 3 years of the pandemic and until now, the corporation itself has also been affected. Recently, international tourists have increased, but not as expected. In some tourist areas and resorts in Da Nang or Phu Quoc, the number of foreign tourists has reached only 84-85%. Tourists still encounter barriers in terms of visas and air routes.
In terms of visa policies, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of Vietravel Holding, commented that we have made many efforts but not as fast or flexible as other countries.
The planning and identifying of key markets are still quite vague. It is necessary to determine the targets for each market such as South Korea, China from now to 2030,…
Moreover, Mr. Ky also mentioned the fact that in the tourism industry, many Vietnamese people travel to Thailand. Each person can go multiple times, while foreign tourists only visit Vietnam once and do not return. According to statistics, the cost of attracting a returning customer is only 1/5 of acquiring a new customer.
Proposal to waive visas for Chinese tourists, cooperate with Thailand
Assessing that our country has full conditions in terms of natural resources, environment and other factors to develop tourism, but it cannot achieve rapid growth, Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, wondered: How to increase international tourists? How to attract more tourists at the lowest cost?
In which, Mr. Binh admitted that the number of tourists has increased, but the number of tour participants has not increased significantly.
He believes that to attract tourists, there must be suitable products, and to achieve that, there must be appropriate policies. However, the implementation of policies has been very slow, causing difficulties for the tourism industry. “To have new visa policies, the tourism industry has to wait for more than 10 years. If we want to open more, we may have to wait for another 10 years. If we are outdated in terms of policies, we will always lag behind,” Mr. Binh said.
Mr. Vo Viet Hoa suggested that in order to increase the number of tourists to Vietnam and the percentage of returning tourists, more attractive visa policies are needed. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore have waived visas for China, so Saigontourist proposed to waive visas for tourists from key markets.
Regarding trade promotion, in addition to participating in events and fairs, this agency also hopes that Vietnam’s tourism will soon have promotional offices in Europe, America, ASEAN, China,…
Mr. Nguyen Quy Phuong, Head of Tourism Promotion, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, suggested considering cooperation with Thailand – a destination that is popular with international tourists – and countries in the region to attract international tourists.
Recently, Thailand expressed a desire to renew air routes and tourism products, so that tourists coming to Thailand can continue their journey to neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia,… This is also a new direction to increase revenue, the number of visitors and returning tourists.
Furthermore, Mr. Phuong believes that international tourists not only travel for leisure but also for business, and they all stay in hotels. Research shows that the expenses of business travelers are at a basic level, including accommodation, transportation,… Therefore, more tourism products need to be developed to stimulate the spending needs of potential high-end customers.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, evaluates that receiving 17-18 million international tourists and 110 million domestic tourists in 2024 is a very ambitious goal.
To achieve this, the tourism industry has set 7 key tasks. Specifically, focus on completing the tourism plan 2025-2030 with a vision to 2045 – awaiting approval from the Prime Minister; organizing linkages – developing green and sustainable destinations; proposing content, changing methods of trade promotion based on segments: community tourism, healthcare, rural tourism, MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference, and Exhibition tourism), golf, railway tourism,…
Establishing tourism trade promotion offices abroad – this is a weakness of Vietnam compared to other countries. Firstly, open an office in Vientiane (Laos).
Ngoc Ha
