Welcoming tourists during the "price storm"

The trend of personalizing travel experiences is on the rise. Photo: Hoang Lan

Personalize your travel experience

In 2024, Vietnam's tourism industry will recover rapidly when welcoming a large number of visitors with 17.5 million international visitors, an increase of 38.9% over the same period in 2023; domestic visitors are estimated at 110 million. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at about 840 trillion VND, an increase of 23.8% over the same period in 2023. According to Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research Nguyen Anh Tuan (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), these achievements are thanks to timely policies of the Government, efforts of localities, and effective cooperation and association of units.

Although assessing that Vietnam's tourism industry has made remarkable progress, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan also stated that the tourism industry will still face many difficulties and challenges, including price storms, changing travel trends of tourists, and competition from the technology era and AI.

Guests attending the discussion "Tourism in times of price storms". Photo: Organizing Committee

Assessing tourism trends in 2025, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Faculty of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said that after the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism trends have changed a lot, in which the trend of personalization is on the rise. Tourists will have the need to travel in small groups such as families, friends, or experience it themselves. "Tourists will prefer real experiences exploring nature, indigenous culture, and health care tourism. Many people choose to travel independently, which will be a challenge for tourism businesses to upgrade their services and products in terms of both price and new experiences," Mr. Pham Hong Long shared.

Sharing on the sidelines of the conference, Vice President of Hanoi Tourism Association Nguyen Tien Dat said that currently, with modern technology and the support of AI, tourists can easily search and book cheap and attractive travel packages. This will be a big challenge for tourism businesses. Building service packages according to combos or designing products according to the needs of each customer group, following trends (such as organizing music events, tours to explore destinations based on hot movies) will be an effective direction", Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat expressed.

How to attract customers effectively?

One of the issues raised at the discussion “Tourism in the time of price storms” is that businesses and tourists have to face the problem of fraud and counterfeiting. Director of Saigon Tourist Hanoi branch Nguyen Hoai Thu said that when choosing to buy products and services, tourists should choose reputable travel agencies, check the company's information page, check the hotline number and contact directly instead of buying online of unknown origin.

FLC Hotels and Resorts builds combo product packages combining air, rail and accommodation to bring attractive experiences to tourists. Photo: Organizing Committee

Faced with these challenges, experts and tourism units have come up with solutions to attract customers according to new trends. According to FLC Hotel and Resorts Permanent Deputy General Director Tran Kim Qui, the unit has currently built all-inclusive combo packages for many types of customers, allowing customers to check-in early, applying flexible postponement and cancellation policies and seasonal incentives. Currently, the unit is collaborating with transportation units such as airlines and railways to build product packages with preferential prices but still ensuring standard services. For example, combo packages of air tickets and accommodation from Ho Chi Minh City - Ha Long, from Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City - Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh); or "0 VND" rail travel experience combo to Quy Nhon. In addition, the unit has built closed-loop experiential tourism product packages such as accommodation, resort, cuisine. “With the rapid development of AI technology, we require employees to update trends and use some AI applications to improve productivity and work quality,” said Ms. Tran Kim Qui.

According to Nguyen Hoai Thu, Director of Saigon Tourist Hanoi branch, in addition to stimulating domestic tourism, the unit has currently developed strategies to attract Inbound tourists (welcoming foreign tourists). In particular, the unit focuses on exploiting the flow of tourists traveling by ship. "This year, it is forecasted that the flow of international tourists with high spending ability will be from Europe, America... We will deploy products to bring customers to experience the journey to discover unique experiences of indigenous culture as well as the journey to discover the top delicious local dishes", Ms. Hoai Thu shared.

At the workshop, experts also proposed many solutions for localities and units to attract sustainable tourists, avoiding seasonal events. Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Hong Long said that there needs to be coordination and sharing among destination units, travel agencies, and accommodation units in organizing stimulus events, promoting cultural and spiritual tourism experience products. According to Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research Nguyen Anh Tuan, accommodation units need to have policies to stimulate demand during the week and during the low season so that tourists can experience the weekdays instead of going on weekends or during peak season.

In 2025, the Vietnamese tourism industry aims to welcome 22-23 million international visitors and 120-130 million domestic visitors. This is a high target in the context of the tourism industry facing many challenges. However, tourism experts believe that with the efforts of the entire industry, the tourism industry believes it can achieve the expected goals.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/don-dau-khach-du-lich-thoi-bao-gia-696379.html