“Tightening” Hoi An ancient town toll collection: Don’t be so busy looking for the “shrimp” that you miss the “shrimp”

Regarding Hoi An's policy of "tightening" entrance fees for domestic and international tourists, there is a humorous opinion: "People release 'shrimps' to catch 'prawns', we just focus on catching 'shrimps' and all the 'shrimps, crabs, fish, and crabs' escape..."

Beautiful sunset covers Hoi An ancient town. (Photo: Contributor/Vietnam+)

Charging entrance fees to visit Hoi An ancient town is not a new story because this locality has been collecting 120,000 VND/international visitor/ticket and 80,000 VND/domestic visitor/ticket since 2012.

However, the story suddenly "heated up" after the city announced that it would have a plan to separate traffic for tourists and locals from May 15 to "tighten" the "lax" fee collection in the past.

So is this fee really reasonable and with many countries in the world as well as other provinces and cities currently owning heritage, what can Hoi An learn?

"Mirror" for Hoi An

Venice (Italy) is a world-famous destination. The city government has proposed to charge a tourist fee many times, most recently from January 2023 it is expected to charge 3-10 Euros/person (about 77,000 VND-260,000 VND), depending on the peak or low season. The fee is applied to tourists visiting during the day and is free for overnight guests.

The purpose of the Venice government in applying the entrance fee solution is to control the situation of tourist overload. Because before the COVID-19 pandemic, this was one of the world's top "hot spots" that was always overloaded with a "huge" number of visitors at all times of the year. Tourists from 5 continents flocked to the narrow streets, causing locals to tend to leave their homeland.

Tourists ride a gondola in Venice, Italy. (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

Venice’s overcrowding and environmental pollution have led UNESCO to threaten to strip the city of its World Heritage status. Faced with such pressure, local authorities have been forced to come up with a plan to reduce the number of tourists pouring in. The immediate solution they have chosen is to charge an entrance fee.

However, at the beginning of this year, this policy had not yet been applied by Venice and the specific time for implementation had not been determined.

The purpose of Hoi An's fee collection is similar. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Son, Chairman of Hoi An City People's Committee, it is to "control tour groups and people coming to Hoi An for sightseeing."

"For a long time, Hoi An's space has been overloaded, and foreign visitors who buy tickets to visit are greatly affected. They think it is unfair because many people enter the old town like them but do not have to buy tickets. And because of this large number of visitors, it prevents tourists from enjoying the landscape of Hoi An..." Mr. Son explained.

"In fact, this implementation is just to separate and reorganize appropriately, to avoid the situation where visitors, people coming to trade and do business all go the same way, leading to a chaotic and unscientific situation," Mr. Son added.

What is the fee and method?

In essence, the collection of fees, according to representatives of some travel agencies, is necessary. There are even proposals to increase the entrance fees at relic sites in the heritage complex to have more funds for the purpose of conservation, restoration, and renovation as well as investment in cultural and artistic activities, festival events, the development of new tourism products, tourism infrastructure, environmental sanitation, etc. as the local policy.

However, how to collect fees and how to collect fees are problems that managers need to consider and calculate carefully to be reasonable.

Regarding the fee, according to the general assessment of travel agencies, the announced entrance fee to Hoi An World Heritage Site is low, compared to the scale.

For example, with domestic world heritage sites such as: Phong Nha-Ke Bang cave system collects 150,000 VND/ticket for Phong Nha cave, 250,000 VND/ticket for Thien Duong cave; Ha Long Bay 290,000 VND/ticket; Trang An scenic complex 250,000 VND/ticket or Hue Imperial City (200,000 VND/ticket)...

Compared to heritage sites in the region such as Taj Hamal Temple, India (about 300,000 VND/ticket), Angkor Wat, Cambodia (equivalent to 900,000 VND/ticket), the ticket price to visit Hoi An is also the lowest.

However, the price comparison in this case is not convincing.

Disagreeing with the above price comparison, a domestic tourism expert said that Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Ha Long Bay, Trang An, Imperial Citadel, or Angkor Wat... are all separate tourist complexes, with no local residents living there.

Meanwhile, tourists coming to Hoi An not only visit but also use many services such as eating, staying, boating, shopping...

International tourists visit the Kong: Skull Island film set in Trang An, Ninh Binh before the area was dismantled. (Photo: Mai Mai/Vietnam+)

There is a witty comment that says, "So I am a tourist staying in the suburbs of the old town, and every day I only need to go to the center of Hoi An to enjoy local specialties or go shopping. Do I have to buy an entrance ticket every time I go in just for a bowl of Cao Lau?"

Therefore, the way of collecting entrance fees to the ancient town in the style of: just enter and buy a ticket is not appropriate. Collecting entrance fees in Hoi An needs to take into account the attractiveness here which is the rich daily life blending old and new, the unique traditions of cuisine, fashion, cultural features through each street decoration, through the voices, laughter and communication of Hoi An people... Don't be so busy looking for "shrimp" that you miss the "shrimp".

Regarding the Chairman of Hoi An City People's Committee mentioning "the need to ensure fairness in ticket sales activities." Many people agree and believe that it is necessary to eliminate the distinction between foreign and Vietnamese tourists, so as not to cause negative feelings for tourists in general.

Tourists visit the old town. (Photo: Mai Mai/Vietnam+)

According to Dr. Nuno F. Ribeiro, Senior Vice President of Tourism and Hospitality Management, RMIT University Vietnam, statistics in 2019 showed that domestic Vietnamese tourists spent 9.6 billion USD, international tourists to Vietnam spent 12 billion USD; the average spending of each domestic tourist was 61 USD and each foreign tourist spent 673 USD. Thus, international tourists spent an average of 11 times more than domestic tourists.

This is the key for the tourism industry to set a goal for this period: how to open the door to welcome foreign visitors back after more than 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Returning to Hoi An's fee collection, some experts say that at this time, when the world is not yet interested in Vietnam, why should we add more "strings" with unnecessary fees? Accordingly, the sustainable path is to attract guests to your home, invite them to enjoy delicious dishes with thoughtful and professional reception... they will be willing to "open their wallets" one way or another.

On the other hand, although the spending level of domestic visitors is much lower than that of foreign visitors, this is a potential and sustainable customer base if we know how to attract them.

HP, a tourist who has been to Hoi An many times, shared: “In the past, I liked to go to Hoi An because it was peaceful, quiet, and the people were hospitable. But now it is chaotic, noisy, crowded.... Besides, there is nothing new, it is just like that... The number of people and service providers has increased, but professionalism is not there yet, many essential services that tourists need are still lacking.."

According to Ms. N.D - a "Hoi An addict" who often "runs in to eat a bowl of Cao Lau" every year: "Hoi An attracts many people not for sightseeing, but to go there, breathe the air there, walk on the familiar streets between the small alleys and the tiled-roof houses..."

"The feeling of sitting by the river, holding a thin rice paper, scooping up a plate of mussels with tiny mussels like the buttons on grandma's shirt... and watching the floating lanterns on the Hoai River carrying away memories, nostalgia and even small wishes... is so beautiful and can only be found in Hoi An," Ms. N.D shared.

International tourists shopping in Hoi An. (Photo: Mai Mai/Vietnam+)

For people like Ms. N.D., perhaps they don't mind paying a small entrance fee to "buy" the emotions that "only Hoi An has," but that fee, as well as the traffic barrier, will certainly reduce the willingness to "run back..." as it has always been.

Like the humorous comparison of a HP tourist about Hoi An's fee policy: "People release 'shrimps' to catch 'prawns', we just keep looking for 'shrimps' and all the 'shrimps, crabs, fish, and crabs' escape..."

Currently, visitors who buy tickets can visit and listen to explanations at the Japanese Covered Bridge, Cam Pho communal house, Tuy Tien Duong Minh Huong, Quan Cong temple, Hoi An museum, Quan Thang ancient house, Duc An, Phung Hung, Tan Ky, Tran family temple, Nguyen Tuong family temple, Phuc Kien, Quang Dong, Trieu Chau Assembly Halls... In addition, visitors will be able to watch traditional art performances at two time slots: 10:15 and 15:15 every day. In response to many opinions about Hoi An requiring all domestic and international visitors to buy tickets to visit, the leaders of the ancient town said: We will accept everyone's criticism and contributions to adjust and supplement them to suit the actual conditions, not be conservative and rigid./.

Mai Mai (Vietnam+)