Recovered, how to accelerate Vietnam tourism?

Golden Bridge - Sun World Ba Na Hills

Tourism recovers dramatically

In August 2023 alone, the number of international tourists to Vietnam reached 1.21 million. This is also the month Vietnam welcomed the highest number of international visitors since the beginning of 2023. In the first 8 months of 2023, international visitors to Vietnam reached more than 7.83 million. With this achievement, Vietnam tourism has almost reached the target for the whole year of 2023.

Not only receiving positive signals about the recovery of the international tourist market, Vietnamese tourism has also been continuously honored by the international community. More than 40 World Travel Awards (WTA) 2023 in Asia - Oceania recently awarded to Vietnam, showing that Vietnamese tourism is increasingly important in the region.Sun Group alone has made its mark at WTA 2023 with 5 WTA 2023 awards in Asia - Oceania, including the award for Asia's Leading Tourism Group 2023.

"Vietnam is increasingly becoming a truly great destination, with all the qualities to become the number 1 market in the world tourism industry. Vietnam's greatest assets lie in its beautiful nature with a coastline of more than 3,000 km and friendly, hospitable people. In addition, Vietnam also owns high-quality resort products. You have known how to take advantage of all of this to elevate your tourism industry," said Mr. Graham Cooke, Chairman of WTA.

Beach in Phu Quoc

The above signals are evidence that Vietnam’s tourism is on the path to an impressive recovery after the severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this recovery result is still modest compared to the pre-Covid-19 pandemic period, or compared to the growth rate of neighboring countries.

Compared to the first 9 months of 2019, when the number of international visitors to Vietnam reached nearly 12.9 million, the figure for the first 9 months of this year is still "long". Looking at neighboring Thailand, in the first 9 months of 2023, it welcomed 19 million visitors, more than double Vietnam's achievement. The island nation of Singapore, with an area only slightly larger than Phu Quoc Island, has set a target of 12 - 14 million international visitors this year.

With the achievements that have been made, from now until the end of the year, Vietnam tourism will certainly grow beyond the set target. However, to break through to achieve the growth figure of 18 million international visitors like in 2019 or catch up with some tourism powerhouses in the region, Vietnam still has a long way to go.

And the story of the top destination deserted

In addition, in the post-pandemic period, Vietnam has been facing many problems that hinder tourism development. The most typical is the recent "deserted" story of Phu Quoc, a destination praised by the international press as the Maldives of Vietnam and fully converging the conditions of quality infrastructure, entertainment, resorts, and convenient transportation. However, while other destinations such as Da Nang, Sa Pa, Quang Ninh, and even emerging destinations such as Tay Ninh are always bustling with domestic and foreign tourists during every holiday or peak summer season, Phu Quoc is in a "deserted" situation, with the number of visitors continuously decreasing.

According to statistics from the Kien Giang Department of Tourism, in August 2023, Phu Quoc is estimated to welcome 544,945 visitors (down 15.2% compared to July), of which international visitors are estimated to welcome 40,080 (down 25.5% compared to July); total revenue is about 1,140 billion VND (down 20.6% compared to the previous month). The number of visitors staying in Phu Quoc in July and August both decreased compared to June, of which August decreased by 14.6% compared to July.

Ms. Tran Nguyen, Deputy General Director of Sun World, shared: "Phu Quoc is a destination that converges many favorable conditions for tourism development, from natural conditions, good products, international airport, visa exemption policy for international visitors... Sun Group itself has also put a lot of effort into investing in the most classy and quality products here. However, the number of visitors to Phu Quoc in recent times is really sad. The number of visitors to our amusement parks has also decreased by 30 - 50% compared to the same period last year".

One of the main reasons why Phu Quoc is increasingly "out of favor" is because of the "sky-high" airfare. At one point, the price of a round-trip airfare to Phu Quoc was equivalent to a trip to Thailand, China or Singapore.

In addition, many opinions reflect that an equally important reason is that the tourism environment in Phu Quoc is increasingly unstable, lacking in civilization and professionalism, making tourists not want to return. People's awareness of tourism is still poor, the way of doing things is fragmented, and prices are cut and run everywhere. Garbage on the sea is also a burning issue that makes the Pearl Island lose more and more points. These are the issues that Phu Quoc needs to look directly at to improve, to get back on track to attract tourists, especially when possessing advantages that not every place has.

Visa relaxation, increased promotion

These are two bottlenecks, but they are also the room for us to continue to improve tourist attraction in the coming time. According to tourism experts, one of the important reasons for the momentum for tourism recovery in recent times is the improved visa policy. The National Assembly recently had a particularly great support for the tourism industry, which is to increase the e-visa period to 90 days and the unilateral visa-free temporary stay period to 45 days. This has created a boost for the green economy to recover faster. However, in reality, compared to the extremely open visa policies of Thailand (visa exemption for 64 countries and territories), Singapore and Malaysia (visa exemption for 162 countries and territories) ..., Vietnam is still "inferior", it is difficult to compete or think about the story of shortening the gap in the growth results of international visitors.

Phu Quoc is facing many difficulties, hindering tourism recovery and growth.

Most recently, in late September, Thailand extended visa exemptions for Chinese and Kazakh tourists for five months as a way to attract more visitors for the upcoming busy holiday season. Tourists from the two countries can enter Thailand without a visa until February 29 next year and can stay for up to 30 days at a time. The visa exemptions are intended to further boost the return of Chinese, the largest group of visitors to Thailand before the pandemic.

Thai authorities have cited the costly and cumbersome visa application process faced by tourists in the wake of the pandemic as a major reason for lower arrivals after the end of Covid-19 restrictions. According to Thai airports, the number of Chinese tourists is forecast to reach 589,993 in October, up 61% from the 365,980 expected in September, as airlines increase the number of flights.

Official data shows that the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand has reached 2.3 million this year, below the government's full-year target of 5-7 million. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) forecasts that at least 5 million Chinese tourists will visit Thailand by the end of this year after the government's visa-free policy for China and Kazakhstan comes into effect.

From Thailand's perspective as well as many countries in the region and the world, visa exemption is always an important weapon to attract international tourists that Vietnam can use to improve its modest number of visitors.

In addition, in the post-Covid-19 pandemic period, tourism promotion and advertising activities are considered to play a key role in attracting tourists, positioning brands, and developing potential markets. However, since the beginning of the year, while Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and China have continuously organized many tourism promotion events in Vietnam, our country has had almost no tourism promotion activities abroad, except for cultural festivals or art programs with diplomatic delegations at the head of state level.

Sun Group's representative received the award at the WTA Asia - Oceania Awards Ceremony

"In the recovery phase after the Covid-19 pandemic, promotion is considered one of the most important weapons in the race of all destinations. However, the current promotion work of Vietnam and its destinations has not been invested in properly. We do not have a systematic national destination promotion campaign. Some key markets in Vietnam have not received priority investment in promotion, but only small-scale promotion activities by businesses or localities, thus showing fragmentation and lack of comprehensiveness. This is a disadvantage for Vietnam tourism," Ms. Tran Nguyen frankly expressed.

Not only is promotion work in the international market still limited, domestically, the upgrading and development of communication channels to promote destinations at the central and local levels in the languages ​​of key international tourist markets is also fragmented and unprofessional, causing international tourists to face many difficulties when they want to find information about services, destinations, experiences, etc.

It is known that the Government has assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review, research and adjust the target of welcoming international visitors in 2023 in accordance with the actual situation to further promote tourism recovery and development. Many experts believe that the Vietnamese tourism industry will continue to conquer new goals if it knows how to take advantage of opportunities from now until the end of the year to accelerate and regain growth momentum as before the pandemic. However, to develop sustainably and make long-term breakthroughs, the tourism industry needs comprehensive and long-term solutions, removing major obstacles so that tourism can take off.

International visitors to Vietnam are only 69% of pre-pandemic levels

According to the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Planning and Investment), in September 2023, international arrivals to Vietnam reached more than 1 million, down 13.4% compared to August and 2.4 times higher than the same period last year. Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese people leaving the country reached 501,400, up 43.1% over the same period last year. In the first 9 months of 2023, international arrivals to our country are estimated at 8.9 million, 4.7 times higher than the same period last year but still only 69% compared to the same period in 2019 - the year before the Covid-19 pandemic; the number of Vietnamese people leaving the country reached 3.8 million, 2.5 times higher than the same period in 2022.

Vietnam's tourism recovery rate and reception target are the lowest in the top 5

According to the World Tourism Organization, Vietnam's target of welcoming international visitors in 2023 or tourism recovery rate compared to 2019 is the lowest among the top 5 most popular destinations in Southeast Asia. Before the pandemic, the 5 countries that welcomed the most visitors in the region were Thailand (39.8 million), Malaysia (26.1 million), Singapore (19 million), Vietnam (18 million), and Indonesia (15.5 million). In 2023, Vietnam aims to welcome 8 million visitors, a recovery rate of 44% compared to before the pandemic, but the remaining 4 countries all set higher targets.

Specifically, Thailand initially expected to welcome 25 million visitors. After China reopened its borders in January, the Thai government changed its target, expecting to welcome 28-30 million visitors. Thus, the country's recovery target compared to before the pandemic is set at 63-75%. Malaysia expects to welcome 16-18 million visitors, pushing the target recovery rate to 69%. Singapore expects to welcome 12-14 million visitors, equivalent to a recovery rate of 63-73%. Indonesia initially expected to welcome 7.4 million visitors, but in July raised its target to 8.5 million. The recovery rate increased from 46 to 53%, showing the country's determination to welcome international visitors.

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