Vietnam welcomed more than 4 million foreign visitors last year. More efforts are being made to human resource development, marketing and yielding new products for the tourism sector. However, to be more professional, there are still many more things being done.

Vietnam’s tourism has undergone a steady growth last year. Vietnam is becoming a more and more attractive destination for both tourists and business people alike. More products for the tourism sector, such as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) are attracting visitors from different regions. The number of MICE visitors, for example, has grown at 30% a year over the past several years.

The number of visitors from Europe has seen a big surge. French visitors amounted to 170,000 last year, a 47% increase compared to the previous year.  The numbers of British and German visitors also exceed 100,000 each.

At the same time, the number of domestic tourists was 19.2 billion, 9.7% higher than 2006. Total revenue from tourism has reached VND 56 trillion , nearly 10% higher than the previous year.

Vietnam continues to be one of the top destinations in the world, as reported in different international media. Vietnam has tried its best to make its image known to the world, including advertising on international channels like CNN. Many events have been held to further advertise the country’s destination of tourism, such as a campaign to vote Ha Long Bay as a new world wonder, attracting millions of responses. The campaign for the northern province of Thai Nguyen named “Back to the Viet Bac Base” also welcomed over 1 million visitors. Vietnam has also teamed up with Laos and Cambodia to organise a promotional programme called “Three countries – One destination” which aims to create a inter-Indochina tours to the most favoured spots in the region. All these efforts have contributed to the increasing number of tourists to the country.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism last year devised various programme to develop tourism, including conducting surveys, research and developing new products. The sector has also attracted foreign direct investment, and 47 projects licensed last year with a total combined capital of US $ 1.863 billion, nearly double the previous year.

However, there are still works to be done, especially in the area of marketing, promotion and advertising, which lacks a comprehensive and harmonised national programme. There has been almost no links between the different regions and provinces in mapping out regional tours.

Vietnam still lacks a long term development programme for tourism, which can help combine and harmonise the different smaller provincial plans that result in the spontaneous activities by the different provinces. Funding for these activities was also limited, and the use of the source has lacked focused. Investment in developing new products is also needed so as to better entertain tourists. At the same time, various infrastructure facilities to welcome tourists, such as ports, airports, etc., have not been renovated and upgraded to international standards.

At the same time, there are also complaints about the quality of services. The improvement in services will help Vietnam’s tourism compete with regional countries and yield more revenues for the sector.

The prices of high quality hotels in big urban centres was also an issue. There were times when the prices of hotels doubled, which caused problems for the different travel agents. This is partly due to the lack of high quality accommodations for tourists.

Solutions for the issues include upgrading the lower quality accommodation to ease the burden on existing hotels. Diversification of products, market survey and the development of new shopping centres for tourists should be the priority for the near future. The combination of tourists and cultural activities will help open a new channels of attracting tourists.

To develop personnel for the sector, proper attention is needed, and a new tariff scheme for the sector, including VAT refund for tourists, is also the case in point  for the development of the sector.   

(Source: Nhan Dan)