‘Vietnam tourism in 2015 should aim at Japan, Korea and Western Europe’

On the eve of the new year 2015, Mr. Vu The Binh – Chairman of the Vietnam Travel Association and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association shared his views and operating trends of the industry in the coming time.

Mr. Vu The Binh – Chairman of Vietnam Travel Association and Vice Chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association.

– How do you evaluate the tourism industry in Vietnam as well as the efforts from many sides to promote this field in the past year?

– Although there are no official figures, it is estimated that international tourist growth in 2014 will reach about 5-6%.

I think this is still a successful year for the tourism industry.

– What are the reasons why the tourism industry is still so slow, sir?

– Firstly, the scale of Vietnamese tourism businesses is mainly small and medium, even very small, so they do not have enough potential to organize business in a sustainable and strong way.

Second, tourism promotion work is generally unprofessional, still in its early stages, and many events are heavily formalized.

We have not yet invested in building and introducing new, attractive products with Vietnamese characteristics to potential markets around the world.

– How do you assess the level of influence from international economic and political events in the past year on Vietnamese tourism?

– In 2014, Vietnam tourism faced two challenges.

These two incidents further confirm that Vietnamese tourism cannot rely on one or two markets, nor can it follow the hot development of a certain market.

As for China, the East Sea incident could greatly affect businesses and localities that welcome visitors from this country.

To serve this segment, of course it will only be necessary to develop cheap tourism, invest in simple products and low-end services.

Ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate Vietnam tourism office in Japan.

– Faced with such events, in your opinion, what could be the solution for 2015?

– When Chinese tourists decreased, the Vietnam Tourism Association coordinated with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism to strongly shift to the Korean, Japanese, and Western European markets and after only a short period of time, quite clear results were achieved.

Although China has the largest number of visitors to Vietnam, per capita spending from this market is among the lowest.

As for Russia, the immediate task is to immediately have a strong stimulus program.

– In addition to the above solutions, what else do you think tourism businesses in Vietnam need to pay attention to?

– For high-end markets, high professionalism is the most important factor for travel companies.

Those are not easy things for many businesses.

– So what is the big challenge that travel companies face, sir?

– Besides us, tourism in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore has made great progress.

Fierce competition requires Vietnamese tourism businesses to gather, have clear market development plans and be highly determined when implementing.

– To increase tourist attraction, some tourist destinations in Vietnam such as Phu Quoc and Ha Long plan to combine casino business.

– Currently in Vietnam, every locality talks about and wants to invest in casinos.

A draft allowing Vietnamese people to play casinos is being submitted.

The consequences of casino development have been clearly seen by many countries.

Phu Quoc and Ha Long are world-famous landscapes, which can be developed into the leading luxury tourism centers in the region.