Experts say that Vietnamese tourism in 2024 will face many challenges if bottlenecks in 2023 such as air tickets are not resolved, causing tourists to continue to leave the home country.
According to Ms. Dinh Thi Thu Thao, Commercial Director of Mustgo, a booking platform with 2,000 partners nationwide, the domestic tourism situation will still face many challenges in 2024. Ms. Thao commented that the tourism industry will continue to recover, but during the economic recession, customers tend to tighten their spending.
Some large airlines such as Bamboo Airways or smaller ones such as Pacific Airlines and Vietravel Airlines have also cut many aircraft and routes to major tourist destinations such as Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, and Quy Nhon, causing airfares to increase and become difficult to access. In addition, airfares may increase when the new ceiling is applied from March 1, 2024.
Information from Mustgo's partners shows that to cope with this, many hotels in coastal areas have launched early promotion and stimulus programs, expecting the number of guests to not decrease compared to 2023.
"I think domestic destinations that depend on flights will face difficulties, especially when going abroad is becoming easier and cheaper," said Ms. Thao.
Best Price Marketing Director Bui Thanh Tu predicts that domestic tourists will switch to traveling by road, lasting 1-2 nights. The low number of stays will significantly reduce hotel occupancy rates.
Mr. Tu also pointed out that poor nighttime activities make tourists not interested in domestic tourism. If we take a look, nighttime activities can be counted on the fingers, mainly in cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Ha Long. Other issues such as overcharging and food safety are also reasons hindering domestic tourism.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pham Hai Quynh, Director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute (ATI), commented that 2023 reflected the chaos of domestic tourism due to the lack of connection between travel agencies, airlines and the destination itself. Therefore, in the new year, the tourism industry needs close cooperation to ensure the interests of all participants. This is demonstrated through the establishment of support and assurance mechanisms during the cooperation process, while creating policies to promote and encourage sustainable cooperation.
"The issue of cooperation between the three parties mentioned above is still a difficult problem to solve," said Mr. Quynh. Currently, Mr. Quynh assessed that the parties are still operating separately, and airlines cannot borrow strength from travel businesses and vice versa.
Ms. Pham Phuong Anh, General Director of Vietnam Tourism, shares the same view and said that in order for domestic tourism products to be competitive, input transportation costs such as airplanes and cars need to be stable. Stable input prices will help travel businesses have strategies to build products early, with quality and suitable promotional programs to reach a large number of tourists.
Despite many difficulties, Best Price representatives said they could see many prospects in the road tour aspect thanks to convenient transportation. In 2023, the Phan Thiet - Dau Giay expressway coming into operation will bring quite a positive signal for Binh Thuan tourism. Upcoming international sports and music events held in Vietnam will also contribute to promoting domestic tourists and building an image to the world.
Next year, many business representatives predict that foreign tourism products will still dominate. Ms. Tran Phuong Linh - Marketing Director, Information Technology of BenThanh Tourist, said that foreign destinations are attractive because of their landscape, culture, and stability in cost and service quality.
Since the fourth quarter of 2023, the company has noticed that Vietnamese tourists tend to prioritize high-end tours, costing from 35 million VND per person, long-term trips to distant markets and predicts that this will be one of the priority choices of tourists in 2024.
Cherry blossom festival in Jinhae-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Photo: WeGo
Best Price statistics show that the rate of customers booking mid-range and high-priced tours in 2023 has increased significantly compared to 2019. Customers booking tours to Japan in 2019 accounted for nearly 1.5% of total customers, increasing to nearly 7.7% in 2023; similarly, tours to Korea increased from 4.4% to 14%; Europe from nearly 0.1% to 2.7% or Taiwan from nearly 1% to 8.1%.
The company predicts that the international tourism market will remain vibrant, especially in mid- to high-end markets such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. These are markets for customers with high average incomes and above, less affected by the economic recession. Diplomatic activities in 2023 between Vietnam and South Korea and China also promise to have a positive impact on tourism activities.
In late 2023, Google released a report on Vietnam's overall situation, showing that "high-spending people spend an average of 5.4 times more than low-spending people." In terms of tourism, high-spending people spend 4.9 times more than low-spending people.
"We see a big shift in customer service for tours, mid-range and high-end products are growing strongly. This is a customer group that is less affected by the economic recession," said Mr. Tu.
Representatives of Vietnam Tourism shared the same opinion about the positive signals of the outbound market, emphasizing that high-spending customers do not care much about price. Besides the high demand from customers, the price of foreign tours will also increase little next year. Regarding mid-range tours, Ms. Phuong Anh said there is a phenomenon of "unhealthy competition" and "cheap prices but poor quality". Therefore, tourists need to be careful when choosing next year.
In the "Draft Report on the Implementation of Tasks in 2023 and the Implementation of Directions and Tasks in 2024" announced by the National Tourism Administration on December 29, the tourism industry aims to welcome 17-18 million international visitors in 2024 after attracting 12.6 million in 2023, equal to 70% of the number before the pandemic. With this goal, Vietnam's tourism is expected to recover 95-100% compared to 2019.
"I think a 30% increase compared to 2023 is enough to reflect the good recovery of Vietnam's tourism industry. Reaching 100% like in 2019 is still difficult in the context of many businesses struggling," Mr. Quynh said.
He said that allowing citizens of all countries in the world to apply for e-visas is a "bright spot" in Vietnam's efforts to attract international tourists. However, the problem of long waiting times and the unsmooth e-visa application process is still a challenge that needs to be solved. Therefore, Mr. Quynh expects further innovation in visa policies to attract more tourists.
According to Mr. Dang Manh Phuoc, CEO of The Outboux Company, a tourism market research company in Vietnam, by 2023, Asian visitors will account for more than 50% of the total number of international visitors to Southeast Asia. Excluding China, this figure is approximately 40%.
Tourists visit Ha Long Bay. Photo: Lux Cruises
By the end of the third quarter of this year, the Asian market had only recovered about 62%, among the lowest in the world. Meanwhile, the recovery rate of the European market at the same time was 94%. Explaining the decline in European visitors to Asian countries this year and previous years, Mr. Phuoc said that on a general scale, global tourists are changing their travel needs, in addition to other objective economic factors.
"Tourists prioritize short trips and intra-bloc travel. Therefore, the recovery rate of the European market is good, but the number of European visitors to Asia is low," said Mr. Phuoc.
Therefore, Outbox representative said that the Asian market will still be the main driving force of regional tourism, including Vietnam. In 2023 and the coming years, the market share of individual tourists in the Asian market is increasing rapidly. This forces travel companies to change the old approach that is popular in Vietnam, which is to prioritize charter, package, and cheap trips.
Tu Nguyen
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