Experts say Vietnam should not focus on the number of travelers, but rather on the money they spend in Vietnam.

Since the day Vietnam announced the full tourism reopening, especially since May, the number of foreign travelers seeking information and booking tours to Vietnam has been increasing rapidly.

Bui Bang Giang, CEO of Exotica Vietnam, said she has had to recruit 10 new sales officers to answer travelers’ inquiries. The firm’s offices in Siem Reap and Bangkok are overloaded at times. Notably, there are fewer travelers from Europe than South America.

However, these are just a few highlights of Vietnam’s tourism. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), 228,300 foreign travelers came to Vietnam in the first five months of the year, which was 4.5 times higher than the same period last year. However, this represented s sharp fall of 95 percent compared with the same period of 2019, before the pandemic broke out.

According to Hoang Nhan Chinh from the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB), in the last seven months of the year, Vietnam needs to receive 4.65 million travelers to fulfill the plan on receiving 5 million travelers this year. This means that it needs to attract 650,000 travelers each month, a very difficult task.

Chinh believes that the goal is attainable, but difficulties are ahead. China, the market which provides one third of foreign travelers to Vietnam, remains closed. There will

not be travelers from Russia this year and maybe the next few years as well. 

Japan has opened its doors, but Japanese travelers remain hesitant and Vietnam will only be able to attract Japanese travelers at the year end at the earliest. The Taiwanese market is uncertain. Vietnam has put high expectations on the American and South Koreans markets, and the number of travelers from other markets are not high.

According to Chinh, in the most optimistic scenario and if Vietnam can do everything well, the number of travelers will increase most sharply in October-December. If so, Vietnam will be able to receive 5 million foreign travelers.

Barriers

The biggest obstacle, according to travel firms, is the visa policy. Some clients have canceled tours to Vietnam just because of the policy.

Pham Ha, Chair of Lux Group, said his firm has lost 10 groups of travelers since the tourism reopening day because they could not get a visa. The travelers from South Africa and Sri Lanka could not obtain e-visas. 

Currently, the visa waiver is applied to 13 markets, but just for 15 days. Meanwhile, European travelers mostly want a long stay and want to travel to neighboring countries as well. If they travel to Cambodia and Thailand, they have to follow procedures from the very beginning again if they want to return to Vietnam.

Regarding the visa-on-arrival policy, Vietnam requires sending in-out tickets in advance, causing difficulties for those who travel to many countries before coming to Vietnam. Travelers are also required to send copies of itineraries, insurance and destination points, which are unnecessary procedures.

TAB believes that the visa policy cannot run as it was before the pandemic. The preferences on visa waivers still cannot satisfy new travel trends and are not competitive. As for the e-visa policy, there is no explanation why applications for visas are refused.

Giang said that there are still few international flights, while air tickets are expensive. The air routes between Vietnam and Thailand and Cambodia are still sparse and some of them have not resumed. Giang, who wanted to go to Siem Reap for business, had to take Hanoi – HCM City – Phnom Penh – Siem Reap flights because the non-stop air route between Hanoi and Siem Reap was still closed.

The Board for Private Economic Development Research (IV Board) commented that there are still problems disseminating information about Vietnam’s tourism reopening policies in target markets.

Giang noted that at the same time when the Ministry of Health removed the regulation such as PCR testing requirement, the tourism sector should have organized campaigns to promote tourism at the national level, rather than leave travel firms to explain to their partners.

Priorities

On the concern about the feasibility of the plan to receive 5 million foreign travelers this year, experts say Vietnam should not attach too much importance to the number of travelers to Vietnam, but should think how to earn more money from tourism.

According to Chinh, a report showed that 70 percent of foreign travelers come back to Thailand thanks to the country’s good marketing strategy, while the figure is just 25-30 percent for Vietnam. Every traveler staying in Thailand for more than 9 days spend $2,500, while the figure is $1,200 only for Vietnam.

It is very difficult to attract massive foreign travelers in the post-pandemic period as seen in pre-pandemic time. Therefore, the number of inbound tourists does not necessarily to increase year after year. Instead of counting foreign travelers, it would be better to attract high-end travelers with high spending levels. If so, though Vietnam can attract 4 million travelers or fewer, it would still be able to obtain the revenue equal to that if receiving 5 million travelers.

Ha Yen