Developing German Tourist Potential

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) considers Germany to be a major source of tourists, with high quality criteria. Vietnamese travel agents consider Germany as one of their most important markets.
With 30 days of annual holiday, German tourists have become increasingly interested in Asian countries. Formerly, the US and Caribbean were common destinations of German tourists. According to experts, the reason for Germans choosing Asia is that Asia has maintained a stable economy with increasingly improved infrastructure. Among Asian countries, Thailand and Vietnam are the most attractive destinations with German tourists. They like staying on beaches, relaxing in the countryside, eating, meeting local people and learning about local traditions and customs. German tourists often travel by air and stay in hotels which they reserve with travel agents. They are often happy to travel, regardless of age, and travel agents should have suitable tourism products to satisfy their tastes.
Germany is an important market for Vietnamese travel agents. The number of German tourists visiting Vietnam has been increasing. The country attracts about 96,000 German tourists annually. It is estimated that the figure will continue increasing. Major tour operators such as Thomas Cook, TUI, One World and Wikinger are promoting Vietnam as a destination. They like tours which focus on adventure activities, relaxing or learning local cultural life with long beach extensions at the end of tours. Mui Ne Beach in Phan Thiet is one of the favorite choices.
In order to attract more German tourists, there is a need for Vietnamese tourism to develop suitable tourism products to meet their demands and produce particular strategies to develop this potential market. Vu Minh Anh, the director of the Tarraverde Travel, a travel agent specialized in German market, said that to European people and Germans in particular, Vietnam is an interesting destination with a number of hidden attractions. Therefore, having a better understanding of German tastes will help travel agents to develop suitable products to attract more German tourists. In addition, it is necessary for Vietnamese tourism to strengthen tourism advertising, and developing eco-friendly tourism that does no harms to local cultural values. It should also focus on improving German speaking tour guides who are expert in German culture. There is a need for appropriate authorities to encourage travel agents to establish representative offices in Germany to promote or enhance tourism there.
With the purpose of fostering tourism cooperation, the Vietnamese and German governments signed the Joint Declaration on Tourism Cooperation in October 2001. German and Vietnamese tourism associations approved the Tourism Cooperation Agreement in May 2003. Since then, Vietnam has implemented diverse tourism promotion activities to exploit this potential market such as taking part in the ITB Berlin Tourism Fair annually. To promote tourism development in the coming time, the two countries have intensified exchanging information about tourism development trend, situation, market study, tourism management and development projects and exchanging experiences on developing typical tourism forms of each country. The Vietnam tourism sector have helped travel agents to meet German partners to seek for business opportunities, created favorable conditions for German tourists when traveling in Vietnam and encouraged German investors to invest in Vietnam tourism, especially investments in national tourism zones, resorts and high class hotels. For Germany, the country has supported investors to go to Vietnam to study Vietnam tourism's potential and seek for investment opportunities. German has assisted Vietnam to train human resources by sending lecturers to Vietnam to teach German for Vietnamese tour guides and chefs or opening short-term training courses on management skills in Germany.