This year, the industry is targeting the arrival of 17-18 million tourists, with a keen anticipation for the return of Chinese visitors. However, Vietnam is not alone in this endeavor; many nations worldwide are actively competing to lure back Chinese tourists.
Ambitious Targets to Welcome Chinese Visitors
As Vietnam's tourism industry strides towards recovery, it's imperative to set robust goals, implement effective policies, and craft actionable plans to entice Chinese guests back to its shores.
Closing the year 2023, Vietnam surpassed expectations by warmly welcoming 12.6 million international visitors, a notable achievement that exceeded the initial target of 8 million set at the year's outset. Buoyed by this success, the entire industry now sets its sights on an even more ambitious goal: to welcome 17-18 million international visitors in the current year, a figure reminiscent of pre-pandemic levels.
Discussing the feasibility of this target, Mr. Đặng Mạnh Phước, CEO of The Outbox Company—a leading market research and data analysis firm specializing in hotel tourism—expresses confidence in its attainability. He notes that with a year of domestic tourism growth under its belt, Vietnam is poised to capitalize on an anticipated surge in outbound Chinese travelers, a pivotal demographic that constituted a significant portion of the country's tourism influx pre-pandemic. Anticipating their return to the forefront in 2024, Mr. Phước underscores the importance of strategic planning and execution to effectively compete with other Southeast Asian destinations vying for the attention of Chinese tourists.
Indeed, Vietnam finds itself amidst fierce competition, with neighboring countries such as Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia all intensifying efforts to reclaim their share of the lucrative Chinese tourism market. As these countries unveil their own targeted goals and strategies to entice tourists back, Vietnam must adopt a proactive stance, bolstering its attractiveness through innovative initiatives, tailored experiences, and seamless infrastructure to secure its position as a preferred destination for Chinese travelers.
While neighboring countries like Thailand and Malaysia are setting ambitious targets and implementing strategic policies to welcome back Chinese tourists, Vietnam appears to lag behind in this regard. Thailand, for instance, aims to attract 36-38 million international visitors, with a significant focus on Chinese tourists, while Malaysia plans to welcome up to 8 million Chinese visitors alone out of its total target of 26 million international visitors this year.
Thailand has gone a step further by launching a visa-free policy specifically targeting Chinese visitors. Temporarily waiving visas during peak seasons and subsequently implementing permanent visa waivers demonstrate Thailand's proactive approach to enticing Chinese tourists back to its shores.
Contrastingly, Vietnam seems to lack a clear and specific goal for its Chinese tourist market. While recent data from the Vietnam National Tourism Administration highlights a remarkable recovery in Chinese tourist arrivals, with figures soaring to 7.5 times higher than the same period in the previous year, Vietnam's tourism strategy appears to lack direction.
Moreover, Vietnam's position as a preferred destination for Chinese tourists is evident, with data from the online travel platform Agoda indicating a significant surge in interest among Chinese travelers. During the recent Lunar New Year alone, 95% of Chinese tourists expressed interest in visiting Vietnam, marking a promising trend for the country's tourism sector.
However, despite these positive indicators, Vietnam's tourism industry seems to be missing the mark when it comes to setting concrete goals and implementing robust policies and action plans to capitalize on the burgeoning Chinese tourist market. As the competition intensifies among Southeast Asian destinations, Vietnam must prioritize strategic planning and proactive measures to reclaim its share of the Chinese tourism market and ensure sustainable growth in its tourism sector.
Challenges and Opportunities
As travel trends evolve, there's been a notable shift in focus towards attracting Korean guests, garnering significant attention in recent days. With Korea ranking among the world's top markets for outbound spending, it stands as Vietnam's largest tourist market. However, despite the increase in Korean visitors, Vietnamese travel businesses have yet to see a corresponding rise in revenue. This is primarily attributed to the prevalent provision of retail services over comprehensive offerings, resulting in a significant portion of profits flowing back to foreign travel agencies' home countries, thereby hindering the growth of Vietnam's tourism sector.
Nevertheless, insights from accommodation establishments reveal that a substantial 80% of their guests still originate from the Korean market. This underscores a prevailing trend in post-Covid-19 tourism, wherein individual travel dominates. Consequently, there arises a pressing need for travel businesses to adapt their strategies and business models to effectively tap into this evolving tourist flow. While catering to high-spending markets like Korean customers presents an opportunity to enhance the value of each customer, it also poses a significant challenge that demands proactive measures from every business entity in the sector.
Indeed, enhancing the value proposition for each international tourist visiting Vietnam remains an ongoing challenge for the tourism industry. Before 2020, statistics from the international tourist spending yearbook revealed that Vietnam's major tourist markets had relatively low average spending per visitor. For instance, Japan recorded an average spending of USD 972.5, Malaysia USD 900.7, China USD 884.3, Thailand USD 846.6, Korea USD 838.4, and Cambodia USD 734.9.
In the current landscape, characterized by shifting travel trends favoring individual exploration, businesses and the entire tourism sector must recalibrate their strategies accordingly. While maximizing the added value from each visitor is crucial, enticing tourists to return also underscores the effectiveness of Vietnam's tourism efforts. Notably, Vietnamese tourists tend to revisit destinations like Thailand or Singapore multiple times, whereas many visitors to Vietnam only make a single trip. This discrepancy is compounded by factors such as Vietnam's rigid visa policy and lackluster tourism promotion activities, with the country notably lacking sufficient tourism promotion offices abroad.
The imperative to attract foreign tourists necessitates collaboration with regional counterparts. Ignoring Thailand's remarkably flexible visa policy or Singapore's substantial promotion budget, Vietnam risks falling behind Indonesia and slipping from its position among the top four tourism destinations in Southeast Asia if it fails to adapt its approach. To remain competitive, Vietnam must proactively address these challenges, revamp its promotion strategies, and explore innovative measures to enhance the overall tourist experience, thereby solidifying its status as a premier destination in the region.
