VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has been joyful with the record high number of 6.847 million foreign travelers in 2012, an increase of 13.86 percent over 2011. Meanwhile, travel firms complained that they have experienced a tough year 2012.


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The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism reported that Hanoi received 2.1 million international tourists in 2012, up by 11.3 percent over the year before.

While the report the high growth rate, small and medium travel firms in Hanoi have confirmed that they have cut down 25-40 percent of the labor force, relocated head offices to the suburb areas and have been doing everything possible to struggle to live.

Nguyen Vu Vy, Manager of Ha Hoi Hotel, said: “We once received 150 groups of foreign travelers in a November, the high tourism season. But now we would happy if we have some 30 travelers.”

“They lied to you if they said they still obtained growth in 2012,” Vy said.

The director of a five star hotel has confirmed that the hotel could not fulfill the business plan in 2012. The hotel occupancy rate was just 73 percent, down by 2 percent over 2011. Though the hotel room rate increased slightly by 1-2 dollars per night, the turnover still dropped by 10 percent, because the hotel had to run sales promotion campaigns to attract guests to compete with many new 4-5 star hotels.

Vy affirmed that he was luckier than other businessmen, while his business was still better than others’. “Our hotel is located in Hoan Kiem district which mostly receives the travelers – businessmen. Therefore, the decline was not too big. I am sure that the hotels far from the central area suffered more heavily,” he said.

A lot of travelers, little profit

The HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism reported that the profit of the hotel market decreased sharply in 2012 due to the input cost increases. 3-5-star hotels have reported the hotel occupancy rate down by 2.3 percent.

“I have heard that a lot of 4-5 star hotels in Hanoi, HCM City, Nha Trang and Da Nang are running noisy sales promotion campaigns. This shows that they are also meeting difficulties,” said Pham Manh Ha from Sang Trong Vietnam travel firm.


According to the General Statistics Office, the number of Singaporean and Malaysian entering Vietnam in 2012 increased by 13.8 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively. However, Asiana Travel Trinh Viet Dung said the profit the firm got was just equal to 10 percent of the cost price.

Even though the number of Russian travelers increased significantly in 2012 by 71.5 percent, Dang Bao Hieu, Director of Trong Diem Trade and Tourism, said the profit was modest because of the overly stiff competition with other travel firms.

In order to ensure profits, travel firms have to negotiate with domestic service providers to slash service fees. Ha said the hotel room rate in the high season did not increase. Especially, in some cases, travel firms could successfully negotiate for the 15-20 percent decrease in comparison with the official contract value.

He went on to say that since it was very difficult to attract travelers in 2012, 4-5 star hotels in key tourism localities did not dare to raise the hotel room rates, while they even offered more meals and free conference rooms.

Ha said he would slash the tour fees by five percent in 2013 to attract more travelers. Hieu has also confirmed the plan to reduce the tour fees slightly in 2013.

Nguyen Ngan – Duc Xuyen