More than just eating and drinking, walking streets and night markets

Just wrapped up in 'eat' and 'play'

In the past 3 years, major tourist centers (hubs) of Vietnam such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang,... have made efforts to activate and develop night-time economic activities through night markets, night food streets, 24/7 convenience store chains, walking streets or entertainment and art performance streets such as: Ta Hien (Hanoi), Bui Vien, Nguyen Hue (Ho Chi Minh City), Ba Na Hills (Da Nang)...

Among them, Da Nang is the most impressive with street art programs, bustling carnival festivals, live shows, and spectacular fireworks competitions that are maintained and upgraded... The city also opened more space for An Thuong walking street, My An night beach, and added water/fire performances to the Dragon Bridge on Fridays in addition to the two weekends...

Thanks to that, the number of domestic visitors to Da Nang increased impressively and exceeded the peak of 2019, international visitors reached 70-80% of the yearly plan.

Street festivals in Da Nang delight tourists (Photo danangfantasticity).

To meet the increasing demand for entertainment, recreation and shopping for night-time visitors, Khanh Hoa province has just approved the Project on Night-Time Economic Development to 2030, the first phase of which will form a walking street, shows; a street specializing in cuisine, bars, and pubs along the coast; marine sports; encourage shopping centers, supermarkets, and convenience stores to close later, etc.

Following that, Lam Dong province also signed and issued a plan to implement a pilot model for night-time economic development in Da Lat city.

The attention and investment of hubs in night tourism service and product systems is expected to attract and retain visitors to stay longer, shop and spend more, and bring revenue to the locality.

However, it is easy to see that even in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, the night entertainment streets such as Ta Hien, Bui Vien, Nguyen Hue can be counted on the fingers. All entertainment activities are limited to food stalls, sidewalk pubs, bars, pubs, walking... Night markets only sell cheap goods of unknown origin. Tourists have few choices. Therefore, the revenue is insignificant.

Daniel Thanh, a 35-year-old Vietnamese expatriate from Germany, and his foreign friends who came to Vietnam for tourism also felt disappointed when leading the group to explore and enjoy Hanoi at night.

“In the evening, I only know how to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake with my friends, eat Trang Tien ice cream; later, I hang out at Ta Hien beer street or go to a bar, but I don’t know what to do or buy. That’s all there is to eat and drink, there are few places to have fun, stores close early, etc. Feeling bored, my group of friends decided to go to Thailand this year,” Daniel Thanh said.

Acknowledging the efforts of the capital in creating new products such as the Decoding Thang Long Imperial Citadel night tour, the Sacred Night tour of Hoa Lo, however, travel companies admit that most activities end before 10pm. The opening of Trinh Cong Son walking street (West Lake), a new walking street combined with cuisine in the suburban town of Son Tay,... is expected to bring freshness and excitement at night, but customers are still sluggish, and food stalls close and turn off their lights before 11pm.

International tourists drink beer on Ta Hien street (Photo: balotrainghiem).

The concept of “night economy” is all entertainment, recreation, and dining activities from 6pm the previous night to 6am the next morning, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Corporation, said that it is not spontaneous but must be systematically planned for each area.

Chairman of the Board of Members of the Inter-Pacific Group (IPPG), Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, also commented that the concept of night economy has not been thoroughly defined in Vietnam, but is simply understood as eating and playing. Therefore, evening entertainment activities are being limited to the space of walking streets, night markets or dance clubs.

Leave shopping area blank

According to tourism experts, developing the night-time economy needs to fully meet three components: entertainment, dining and shopping. However, at the recent workshop 'Opening visas, restoring tourism', Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen analyzed that Vietnam has not paid enough attention to the bottleneck of increasing visitors' spending. We lack valuable, diverse products for visitors to shop, and lack specific places for visitors to spend money.

Meanwhile, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, 70% of customer spending is concentrated at night.

Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen commented that although Vietnam has great potential for growth in the number of visitors, the quality and service need to be seriously considered. Our total number of visitors is only 50% of Thailand's and the spending level of international visitors is only 40%.

Similarly, compared to Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan, the total spending of visitors to Vietnam is even lower.

Hanoi Old Quarter night market sells cheap goods of unknown origin (Photo: Dan Tri).

Surveying Thailand, Singapore and Hainan Island (China) - destinations similar to Vietnam but with outstanding tourism development, he cited that Singapore, although only as large as Phu Quoc Island and limited in nature, has a tax-free policy that has helped this island nation become a shopping paradise. Thanks to that, the average total spending of a tourist in Singapore is many times higher than in Vietnam.

Or in Thailand, shopping tourism has contributed to a strong increase in international spending revenue with a compound growth rate of 28.2%.

Hainan Island (China) has the world's largest duty-free shopping mall, with about 800 brands, distributed throughout the island.

As for our country, up to now there is still no duty-free shop system (only at the airport), no outlet centers with deep discounts of 50-90% to attract shoppers.

Therefore, not to mention international tourists, even many Vietnamese people choose to travel abroad to take advantage of shopping. When coming to Thailand, Korea or Japan, Vietnamese tourists spend all their last money, swipe their credit cards to buy goods such as fashion, cosmetics, household appliances, nutritious foods...

Typically in Korea, in 2022, Vietnamese tourists will become the biggest spenders in this country. The average card transaction per capita of Vietnamese tourists when shopping in Korea is about 197,000 won (over 3.5 million VND), surpassing Japanese tourists with 188,000 won (3.3 million VND) and Chinese tourists with 171,000 won (3 million VND),...

Obviously, Singapore, Thailand or Korea know how to capture the psychology and please tourists by creating different products, especially in entertainment and night shopping, making international visitors willing to open their wallets - something that our country's tourism industry needs to learn.

Source