Vietnam’s tourism industry growing, but slowly

Though obtaining a satisfactory growth rate in 2010 with five million foreign tourists, experts say there are still a lot of things that need to be done to develop tourism industry.
Vietnam slow in develop tourism products
Like other countries in Asia Pacific that benefited from the higher number of inner-bloc tourists in 2010, Vietnam’s tourism industry had a prosperous year in 2010 with five million foreign tourists. However, the figure is nothing if compared with 15.7 million foreign tourists to Thailand, 12 million tourists to Singapore, 24 million to Malaysia and 7 million to Indonesia
Statistics show that the number of Asian people traveling to regional countries increases by 10 percent every year. Meanwhile, a recent survey released by Market Probe Asia Pacific showed that 71 percent of more than one million Chinese people who regularly travel abroad plan to go to countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the next year.
The trend can also be seen in India and countries in the Middle East.
Therefore, Asian countries well understand that now is the right time for them to attract the wealthy regular travelers. Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, have recently poured money to develop high grade shopping centers and modern entertainment complexes, organize special art performance shows and the exhibitions of international stature. Meanwhile, Malaysia has been taking full advantage of its natural landscapes and cultural values to develop resort and homestay tourism. It has been trying to design specific tours targeting Muslim clients, the tourists from the Middle East and India.
Meanwhile, Vietnam still has not conducted thorough market surveys and has not made appropriate investments to develop new tourism products. That explains why the duration tourists stay in Vietnam and the money they spend when traveling Vietnam has not increased considerably over the past many years. In 2010, in an effort to develop tourism, Vietnam saw hotel room and air ticket supplies increasing considerably. However, it still could not do much to diversify entertainment products.
Analysts say Vietnam still cannot take full advantage of its potentials to develop tourism. For example, though Vietnam has been well known for its beautiful beaches, the beach cities do not attract many tourists. The beautiful destinations of Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Phu Quoc island or Vung Tau City still attract domestic travelers, because they still do not have specific tourism products.
The analysts said that in Thailand, every sea tourism destinations target a specific class of tourists. For example, Pattaya, Patong in Phuket are places which serve middle class earners, while Huabin, 200 kilometers far from Bangkok, which is a quiet area with many luxurious resorts, specializes in serving high income earners. Koh Samui island and Andaman beach in the south are the destinations of tourists who like sea sports and wild landscapes.
…and passive in advertising
In 2010, Indonesia suffered from natural calamities, while Thailand suffered from political uncertainties. However, both the countries still fulfilled their plans to attract tourists thanks to their dynamism and flexibility. Meanwhile, Singapore and Malaysia, thanks to their methodical advertisement plans, successfully attracted more tourists and persuaded them to spend more money.
Meanwhile, Vietnam reportedly failed to fulfill many plans to advertise Vietnam’s tourism. The plan to open representative offices at key markets has not been implemented. To date, the Vietnam Tourism Administration of Tourism (VNAT) does not have any representative office in other countries in the world. Meanwhile, Thailand has 20 offices worldwide, and Malaysia has two offices in both HCM City and Hanoi.
The annual budget Vietnam spends annually to develop tourism is about 40-50 billion dong, or $2-2.5 million, which is very low if compared with the budget of Indonesia ($6 million), Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore which spends $65 million. It is understandable that with such a modest budget, Vietnam cannot hire professional marketing and advertisement services which can help effectively advertise Vietnam’s tourism.