Tailoring services a cut above in Hoi An

Many international tourists have their clothes made in Hoi An when they visit the ancient city. That leads to the sprout of tailoring services in the city. Tourists from different countries can send orders enclosed with their size, by e-mail, to a tailor’s shop and they will receive satisfactory products from Vietnam some days later.
Hoi An is now famous for not only its historical and cultural values with ancient architectural lines, historical relic sites and traditional festivals, but also tailoring services. Tailor shops are mushrooming in Hoi An to meet the increasing demand of foreign guests who want to have their clothes made in Vietnam on their tours. By contrast to prices in their countries, to have clothes made in Vietnam is much cheaper, especially compared to Western countries. Normally, a suite cost between US $150 and US $300, and a Vietnamese long dress (Ao Dai) costs only around US $70.
Trinh Diem Quynh, Director of Yaly Company, which has 2 large tailor shops in Hoi An, said that low prices are important but tailors should please their clients with nice products and good services. Normally, tourists cannot remain in Hoi An for a long time, so sometimes they want to have their clothes made in a few days, even hours, and the tailor has to satisfy their request.
Ms Mari from Britain happily came out of Luat Tailor’s on Nguyen Thai Hoc street. She just had a Vietnamese long dress made there. She said that the cost was only 60 per cent in comparison to that back home, and more interestingly she could get her dress after waiting only an hour.
Apart from pleasing their clients on clothes orders, tailor shops do not forget to give souvenirs and provide e-mail addresses. Many tailor shops in Hoi An have their own websites, such as www.yalycouture.com, www.hoianthuthuyfilk.com, via which their clients could send orders by e-mail to shops and they will get their clothes in several days later by post. In fact, many foreigners who visited Hoi An, and had their clothes made there ,later become regular customers of local tailor shops. Tailors of Thu Thuy shop, a large one in Hoi An, said that they have hundreds of foreign clients. In addition to meeting all their customer's needs for clothes, Thu Thuy shop often send gifts and postcards to their clients on various occasions the year round. These caring activities make their clients happy and create for the shop more orders, said the tailors.
As tailoring services sprout in Hoi An, international tourists have more reasons to go to and stay in the ancient town besides its renowned attractions of historical and cultural value and old architecture. Facts show that these very services entice foreign tourists stay longer, help increase the number of international tourists, and become an important reason for foreigners to come back to the town. This can be seen as a good model for tourism development for other localities to follow.