Paradox of Vietnamese tourism

Every year, the Vietnamese tourism industry receives a "shower" of prestigious world awards, overwhelming regional countries, but the number of international visitors is not equal.

In addition to the WTA awards, Vietnam is also recognized by many international organizations, media agencies, magazines, and famous travel websites such as CNN, Travel&Leisure, The Travel, Wanderlust, Tripadvisor Many times honored for cuisine, destination, landscape.

In the first 8 months of the year, Vietnam welcomed more than 11.4 million international visitors. In the same period, the number of international visitors to Thailand reached nearly 22 million, Singapore more than 11.3 million. Malaysia welcomed nearly 12 million in the first 6 months of the year.

In 2023, Vietnam will welcome 12.6 million international visitors; 3.4 times higher than in 2022 and ranked 4th in Southeast Asia. Last year's champion was Malaysia with 29 million visitors. Thailand ranked second with more than 28 million visitors, followed by Singapore with 13.6 million visitors.

Lua Viet Tour Chairman Nguyen Van My said the awards are "like beauty pageants". The person chosen as beauty queen is the most beautiful person in the contest in the eyes of the judges and readers, not necessarily the most beautiful person in the region.

Similarly, the awards Vietnam receives are the same, WTA awards according to their criteria, not representing the whole world. All awards are relative, even the most prestigious awards. Therefore, Vietnam receiving many tourism awards is not necessarily proportional to the number of international visitors.

According to the United Nations Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the 10 countries receiving the most visitors in 2023 are France (100 million visitors), Spain (85.2 million), the United States (66.5 million), Italy (57.2 million), Turkey (55.2 million), Mexico (42.2 million), the United Kingdom (37.2 million), Germany (34.8 million), Greece (32.7 million) and Austria (30.9 million).

AZA Travel CEO Nguyen Tien Dat said there are many reasons why a destination attracts many tourists, awards are just one part.

The more awards Vietnam receives, the more pressure the tourism industry will face. "It's like a double-sided medal," Dat said. While the awards put Vietnam on the world map, they also bring challenges.

When international visitors want to visit Vietnam, they will search for information online. The initial information that appears is Vietnam's location associated with awards, the best or honored hotels. But when visitors research deeper into the destination to find experiences, what they find may be the dark side such as environmental pollution, tourist solicitation, rip-offs, poor nightlife. At that time, the awards Vietnam has achieved become a weakness because the reputation is far from reality.

According to Mr. Dat's assessment, tourism awards do not have as strong and profound an influence on international visitors as famous websites such as Tripadvisor good Lonely Planet . These sources provide information based on big data and real-life reviews from hundreds of millions of travelers around the world.

"We should not expect too much that if we win many awards, we will attract many visitors," Mr. Dat shared. He believes that we should not "wait for the fruit to fall into our mouths" but need to have specific plans and promotional strategies to take advantage of these awards to communicate to tourists around the world.

Explaining why neighboring destinations like Thailand and Singapore have few awards at WTA, Mr. Dat said that maybe the destinations are already famous with tourists so they "don't participate".

"Let's not talk about the award anymore, what we need to discuss is what to do next after receiving the award," said Mr. Nguyen Van My, emphasizing that we should "stop shouting and participating in the award" because visitors to Vietnam do not come for the award. They come to Vietnam mostly because their friends have introduced them or through the media.

First of all, if we want to attract more tourists to Vietnam, especially fastidious tourists like Japan and Europe, we need to clean up garbage, solve noise pollution, clean the environment, and ensure food safety. "No one wants to go to a place where food poisoning is easy and garbage is everywhere," said Mr. My.

Vietnam does not need to discuss macro issues to attract tourists, but needs to change from the simplest things. If Vietnamese tourism wants to take off, it needs to revolutionize public toilets and waste. Currently, according to the assessment of the Chairman of Lua Viet Tour, public toilets are "much better than 10 years ago", but many people still do not dispose of garbage properly.

Mr. My thinks that Vietnam should have a form of punishment for littering, like Singapore is doing because cultural habits do not come naturally. Strict laws form habits.

Next, Vietnam needs to position itself as a safe and friendly destination. The issue of friendliness needs to be improved at border gates - the first place where visitors will come into contact with Vietnamese people. "Customs, airport security, and border police need to smile and welcome visitors," said Mr. My. Local people should also show a friendly attitude towards visitors, perhaps just by waving or smiling, to help Vietnam score points in the eyes of international visitors.

According to tourism experts, revenue per visitor is the most important thing, not quantity. Therefore, Vietnam should aim to welcome high-spending, sustainable tourists instead of mass tourism.

CEO Nguyen Tien Dat likens awards to "paint", if the wood is not good, no matter how beautiful the paint is, it is useless. In addition to the "reputation" honored in the international arena, the tourism industry and the Vietnamese people need to create good experiences for tourists. Thus, Vietnam not only has a reputation but also has real strength.

"Vietnamese tourism needs to avoid the situation of good paint over good wood," said Mr. Dat.

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