Welcoming super-rich tourists: What opportunities for Lao Cai?

In April 2024, many tourist attractions in Hanoi were chosen by Apple CEO - Tim Cook to experience. Although he only had 2 days in Hanoi with a busy, continuous work schedule, Apple CEO - Tim Cook still took the time to experience Hanoi in the image of a friendly tourist. This world-famous businessman had to exclaim: There is no place like Vietnam - a vibrant and beautiful country!

Previously, in early March 2024, billionaire Bill Gates and his girlfriend traveled to Da Nang. During their 4 days in Da Nang, billionaire Bill Gates and his girlfriend visited Son Tra peninsula, enjoyed tea, meditated, watched the city on the top of the Ong Tien chessboard, and played tennis at the resort.

Bordering Lao Cai, at the end of December 2022, a helicopter carrying members of a group of American billionaires landed in Ha Giang city. It is said to be the first group of super-rich guests to set foot on the "stone plateau". The group has 6 members, including 2 guests who are American billionaires and their girlfriends, accompanied by a nurse, a physical trainer, and a representative of a travel service provider in Asia for the couple. Although they only stayed in Ha Giang for 4 days and 3 nights, the plan for the trip was prepared 4 months in advance, with the first requirement being to book the entire resort here. After the above group, in 2023, this resort continued to welcome 2 groups of super-rich guests, a Thai billionaire couple (September 2023) and a group of American young masters (December 2023).

For Lao Cai, many people working in tourism do not forget the event when the "boss" of the world's largest social network Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg spent 1 day and 1 night (December 25 - 26, 2011) traveling to Sa Pa. During his time in Sa Pa, this dollar billionaire stayed at the Topas Ecolodge resort, and also experienced walking to explore the village, cycling with his girlfriend, riding buffaloes and playing blind man's buff.

The common point of the trips by the super-rich when coming to Vietnam is often to experience luxury services to affirm their wealth, power, status but also very sophisticated about cultural values, heritage. The super-rich market segment can include famous businessmen or retired politicians, outstanding leaders of a country, superstars in the world of art, performance, sports...

CEO of All Asia Vacation Nguyen Duc Hanh - the unit that organized the trip for American billionaire Bill Gates in early March - once shared that the unit has welcomed many super-rich guests in the world, from Hollywood stars, singers to tennis legends, CEOs of leading technology corporations. Customers pay an average of 500 USD/person/day, some even spend up to 15,000 USD/day.

However, super-rich tourists are very demanding, with detailed requirements for every meal, means of transportation, accommodation and especially requiring uniqueness and privacy. For example, on a trip to Ha Giang, a group of American billionaires requested the resort to keep the schedule secret, not accept any guests during the group's stay here, and the daily menu would have to be deleted after the group left.

That said, attracting the world's super-rich is not easy, but it is a "gold mine" of tourism if exploited. Director of the Department of Tourism Ha Van Thang said that Lao Cai has a lot of potential and conditions to meet the requirements of super-rich tourists, such as unique nature, identity, especially international resorts such as Topas Ecolodge, Lady Hill Sa Pa. In recent times, although not many, Lao Cai has welcomed a number of world dollar billionaires to travel and relax.

According to the Director of the Department of Tourism, Lao Cai always pays attention to and does not discriminate between tourist segments. However, Lao Cai also proactively researches and enhances promotion to attract super-rich tourists. In recent times, the provincial tourism industry has paid certain attention to the super-rich tourist segment through many promotional and marketing activities at tourism events.

“In the future, the opportunity to welcome super-rich tourists will certainly expand to Lao Cai, because we have both the necessary and sufficient conditions. The problem is that travel agencies, tourism businesses and localities need to pay attention to designing separate services to meet their special needs and expectations,” Mr. Ha Van Thang affirmed.

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