Yacht tourism needs better care

Although there are more and more small tourist boats with capacities of 100-200 visitors and yachts wanting to arrive at new ports in Vietnam, infrastructure and services still fail to meet the demand.
Vu Duy Vu, deputy general director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that yacht tourism, a segment of cruise tourism, was promising, but Vietnam has yet to cash in on the potential.
Tourists from the U.S. and Europe have the demand of dropping by Vietnam on their journeys between Hong Kong and Singapore and even visiting Vietnam with the shortest stay of five days and the longest of three weeks.
Yacht owners normally have crewmembers sail their yachts to Vietnam first and then fly here with family or friends. They will leave Vietnam by plane after their journeys end.
Journeys of such tourists are not fixed, and they often select destinations after arriving in Vietnam, Vu said.
“We have received many requests from owners of luxury yachts, but the number of yachts arriving here is still low due to Vietnam’s poor infrastructure and inadequate services,” Vu said.
According to Vu, a shortage of tourist ports and complicated procedures at ports are among reasons for the low number of yachts arriving in Vietnam. Yacht owners do not want to dock at cargo ports which have unhealthy environment and can damage their yachts.
Yacht tourists prefer docking at new ports such as Cam Ranh and Van Phong in Khanh Hoa Province. However, such ports are domestic ones, and thus foreign boats have to seek permission at international ports first.
Sharing the same opinion with Vu, experts in Singaporean cruise tourism in a report mentioned that despite huge potential of this tourism model, Vietnam was losing the market due to many problems including too high fees.
Currently, Vietnam has yet to issue any regulations on yacht tourism activities, and cruise tourism regulations have not been standardized among cities and provinces. As a result, yachts wanting to dock in Vietnam have to pay several high fees, and most of them choose not to visit Vietnam.
In related news, a working team for cruise tourism which has the participation of customs officers, border guards and travel firms will be established to handle issues related to cruise tourism, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism at the seminar on cruise tourism held in Khanh Hoa Province’s Nha Trang City on Sunday..