Foreign visitors bemoan lack of quality souvenirs

Vietnam-made souvenir products and their lack of variety, design and shoddy quality are discouraging millions of foreign visitors to Vietnam to spend while on holiday in the country.
“A foreign visitor to Thailand spends up to US$500 each day for shopping but in Vietnam, they spend about $100 each day for local goods,”
Le Dinh Tuan, chairman of the Managing Board of the Tan Hong Tourist Company said.
“Vietnam hasn’t been able to tap the potential of this market,” he said. “That is such a waste.”
Vietnam welcomed 2.48 million foreign travelers in the first eight months of this year which means local businesses could earn millions of U.S. dollars from international guests.
Most foreign visitors to the country are interested in traditional handicraft products and are willing to spend money on items to bring them home as souvenirs.
“There have been foreign tourists who stepped out of a sculpture store empty-handed but ordered items worth thousands of U.S. dollars from the store to be shipped to their countries,” Tuan said.
But they are discouraged by the limited designs of the products as well as their inconsistent quality.
Nelly, an Australian tourist, said she had intended to buy ten small statues of Vietnamese women in ao dai (the traditional Vietnamese tunic-dress) as souvenirs but ended up with only five because there were only a few varieties to choose from.
Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, public relations director of Ho Chi Minh City-based travel firm Fiditour said, foreign travelers were no longer interested in T-shirts printed with Vietnamese images because of their poor execution and fabric quality.
A large number of international travelers are also interested in bringing Vietnamese coffee back home but they were put off by the lack of instructions on how to make Vietnamese-style coffee on the packages as well as the product designs, a local tour guide in HCMC, said.
Local shops targeting tourists often offer a wide range of souvenirs, including postcards, key holders, bags, knitted wallets, embroidered paintings, lacquered items and local delicacies but most of the stores sell goods with the same designs.
“The shortcomings of local products are the lack of designs, eye-catching packages and variety,” Nguyen Ngoc Van, manager of the souvenir shop The Post Shop at the General Post Office in HCMC, said.
“Tourists are really fond of items that have a Vietnamese signature but they don’t have many choices to choose from,” he said.
Some products don’t even have the name of the producers and expiry date on the packages.
Nguyen Vinh Thai, general director of brand building firm Rong Viet Values, said the product packages are the first sale agents of a company.
Product packages determine up to 60 percent of consumers’ shopping decisions but Vietnamese producers have yet to pay sufficient attention to them, he said.
Thai suggested domestic producers consider developing product packages as part of their investment and concentrate on developing product brand
Duong Thanh Thuy, owner of the ao dai brand Miss Ao Dai, said local stores should pay attention to how the packages are presented and which materials they are made of.
Van said his shop was planning to sell Vietnamese coffee products which go with packages printed with names of the producers, instructions as well as a coffee filter to help consumers make Vietnamese-style coffee.