Record for welcoming super luxury yacht
"It was great! I will return to Vietnam", the German guest on the Europa 2 cruise ship was delighted after a 4-day journey in Vietnam. Arriving at SPCT port (Ho Chi Minh City) at noon on March 3, Europa 2 carrying 400 German guests had a day to visit the largest economic center of Vietnam, before leaving the ship on the afternoon of March 4 to arrive at Tien Sa port (Da Nang) on March 6. Here, the group of guests of this luxury cruise ship had a journey to explore Hoi An and Hue, visit Tra Que vegetable garden, cycle on beautiful roads, enjoy the peaceful space in Hoi An ancient town and learn about the ancient capital of Hue, rich in history and culture with famous works.
Azamara Quest cruise ship docked at Saigon port on March 1.
Previously, at noon on March 1, the Azamara Quest cruise ship docked at Saigon port, also carrying 300 tourists from the UK, US, Germany, Australia, etc. The unit that organized the reception of the ship, Saigontourist Travel, organized a 3-day tour of Ho Chi Minh City and Ben Tre for the group. On the first evening in Vietnam, 300 super-luxury guests had a special event "Amazing Evening Event", immersed in a cultural space imbued with Vietnamese culture, learned and tried folk games, and enjoyed unique Vietnamese cuisine at Binh Quoi Tourist Area.
International tourists arrive in Ha Long by ship, January 22
On March 5, the ship continued to dock at Tien Sa port for the group to explore Da Nang city, Hoi An ancient town, Hue ancient capital and leave Vietnam that evening. As soon as Azamara Quest weighed anchor, 1,500 multinational tourists on the cruise ship Resort World One docked at Phu My port (Ba Ria-Vung Tau), joining tours to explore Ho Chi Minh City and My Tho on March 5. The guests visited famous destinations in Ho Chi Minh City such as the City Theater, Reunification Palace, Ben Thanh market, War Remnants Museum, History Museum, Bitexco building, Cu Chi tunnels...; then explored the gardens of the Southwest region and enjoyed delicious dishes with rich Vietnamese flavors. The international guests were extremely excited with the rich itineraries and special experiences.
Mr. Vo Viet Hoa (Director of Inbound Division, Saigontourist Travel Service Company)
The South is rushing to welcome "big guests", and the Northern ports are not far behind. On March 6, Ha Long International Cruise Port welcomed the luxury cruise ship Mein Schiff 5 (Malta nationality) with nearly 2,000 European tourists, mainly German nationals. After docking at the port, the tourists visited and explored famous destinations with diverse and unique itineraries such as Ha Long Bay, experienced kayaking to admire the beautiful scenery in the bay and the amazing caves. The group also had a program to explore the sacred Yen Tu mountain, visit the capital Hanoi; visit Hai Phong, experience trekking on Cat Ba island. This is the second international cruise ship and the largest cruise ship group to Quang Ninh since the beginning of the year. Previously, on January 22 (the first day of the Lunar New Year of Quy Mao), Ha Long welcomed the cruise ship Silver Spirit bringing 500 international tourists to "break ground".
International tourists on the Silver Spirit cruise ship docked at Tien Sa Port, Da Nang, January 23.
In the first week of March alone, 4 international cruise ships brought more than 4,200 multinational tourists to our country. This is a new record in 2023 for the density of cruise ships docking at Vietnamese ports after 3 years of the pandemic.
Service is activated wherever the ship arrives.
The influx of luxury cruise ships in the first months of the year is expected to usher in a "bumper" cruise season, because before the pandemic broke out, Vietnam was among the top destinations with the highest number of cruise ship arrivals in Asia with more than 400 cruises/year, just behind Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. This is also one of the key tourist markets being promoted by localities, because cruise ship passengers are luxury customers, willing to spend a lot of money on high-class services. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has shown that cruise tourism has a revenue value about 40% higher than air or road tourism. This is the reason why cruise tourism is favored and fully exploited by developed countries in the world.
European tourists on cruise ship docked at Saigon port
Mr. Vo Viet Hoa, Director of Inbound Division of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that normally, cruise ship passengers have to prepare at least 1 year, and the cruise schedule even has to be prepared 2 years in advance, so the number of ships that have just arrived at Vietnamese ports today are mostly groups of passengers who had planned during the pandemic period. They are all ready, just waiting for ports in China to reopen so they can sail. This shows that the tourism demand of cruise ship passengers is very high. Cruise ship passengers typically travel in large groups. If a group of passengers traveling by air chartering a whole flight can only carry a maximum of about 200 passengers, a ship can carry 2,500 - 3,000 passengers. Combined with sailors and crew, each ship arriving at port can contribute 5,000 - 6,000 more people to the list of international visitors to Vietnam. With thousands of high-class tourists willing to pay up to 250,000 USD for a few months of sea travel, each ship docking is an opportunity for destinations to increase revenue and revive the tourism industry.
"People's income is increasing, leading to an increase in the trend of experiencing luxury tourism. Cruise passengers enjoy many services, cruises through many countries, and spend a lot of money. For example, they come to Vietnam, go to Ho Chi Minh City for 1 day, then continue to Nha Trang, Ha Long, Da Nang... So the travel agency has sold a 6-day, 5-night tour. All the transportation services and tour guides have jobs. Then wherever the ship docks, food and drinks are served there. Not to mention that passengers and crew members all go shopping, eat, and spend money. Every time a ship docks at Saigon port, that day, Ben Thanh market is "flooded" with sailor uniforms. The benefits spread very strongly", Mr. Vo Viet Hoa cited.
Silver Spirit cruise ship docked at Tien Sa port, Da Nang on January 23.
Visa and port barriers
Vietnam's tourism development strategy for 2020, with a vision to 2030, has identified sea and island tourism as the number one priority. According to the assessment of the General Department of Tourism, Vietnam has many diverse tourist destinations from the North to the South, from the mountains to the plains, beaches, islands with many famous landscapes, and long-standing cultural and historical relics. Famous sea tourist areas in our country such as: Ha Long - Cat Ba, Son Tra - Hoi An, Nha Trang - Cam Ranh, Phan Thiet - Mui Ne, Phu Quoc ... are all considered to have the ability to compete with sea tourist areas in the region and Asia to attract cruise tourists.
According to the "Contribution of Cruise Tourism to the Global Economy in 2018" published by the International Association of Cruise Lines in 2018, the number of cruise tourists and crew ashore was 14.36 million, the total direct consumption generated was 67.97 billion USD, the total contribution to production was 150.13 billion USD, the total contribution to income was 50.24 billion USD. In 2020, the total value of cruise tourism was expected to reach 50 billion USD if there was no Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the great potential, Mr. Vo Viet Hoa said that in reality, Vietnam's ability to receive cruise ship passengers is still very limited. First of all, it is due to the visa issue. Also because of the large number of passengers on each ship, visa approval is very difficult. A ship with 5,000 - 6,000 people, to get a visa, many documents and other terms must be prepared. Cruise ship passengers are often encouraged to apply for visas in groups for convenience when entering and exiting the country, making it easier for border guards to check, control and minimize errors. Not to mention, if passengers apply for visas on their own, it will be very difficult to return if the ship stops at one point or leaves Vietnam. That is also one of the limitations of Vietnam's immigration procedures.
"For group visas, we have had many conditions, and the paperwork takes a lot of time. Visitors to Vietnam often complain that the procedures for entering other countries are very quick, but in Vietnam, it takes a long time and there are many procedures. Besides, welcoming cruise ship passengers requires a knowledgeable and experienced logistics team, but they must be young, strong, and dedicated. Currently, finding people to work on cruise ships is extremely difficult. Because of many difficulties and complicated logistics, in Vietnam today, there are only a handful of companies that can handle the cruise market," a representative of Saigontourist Travel Service Company analyzed.
Besides visas, Mr. Tran Song Hai, General Director of GreenlinesDP Company Limited, assessed that one of the biggest difficulties of Vietnam today is the seaport network. In the world, countries that want to develop cruise ships must have clear planning between passenger ports and cargo ports from the beginning. Ports that welcome large cruise ships of about 5,000 passengers must be deep-water ports with a draft of up to 12 meters. The total cost from site clearance, planning to construction of such ports must cost thousands of billions of VND. In Vietnam, there are a number of ports that meet this requirement: Phu My port (Ba Ria-Vung Tau); Nam Van Phong port area, Cam Ranh international port (Khanh Hoa); Phu Quoc (Kien Giang); Da Nang; Ha Long port (Quang Ninh), but only Ha Long international cruise port specializes in welcoming passenger ships. The remaining ports are also for container ships carrying goods. Meanwhile, each time a passenger ship docks at a port, it only pays a maximum of 40,000 USD in port fees, while a container ship has to pay up to 200,000 USD. With such a profit difference, of course the ports will give priority to receiving cargo ships. In addition, Vietnam's current cruise tourism management system is very backward, heavily administrative, with overlapping procedures, fees on fees, and the already narrow market becomes even more difficult.
Vietnamese people do not like cruise tourism.
According to Mr. Phan Xuan Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viet Excursions Company, Vietnamese people do not have the habit of traveling on long-term rivers. In fact, the demand for long-term sea tourism in Vietnam is very low, while building a large luxury ship requires a huge cost, so no business dares to participate. If we want to welcome more guests from other countries like international ships, Vietnam does not have enough potential, experience and passenger network to compete with cruise tourism hubs such as Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand. It is a very fierce game that we hardly have the opportunity to enter.
Agreeing, Mr. Vo Viet Hoa, Director of Inbound Division of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, assessed that although the demand has increased compared to before, Vietnamese people have also started to get used to using services on ships, but it is still only at the "initial" level, traveling by ship for a long time is boring, so travel companies have to organize outbound tours to take customers to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong to take a ship for a few days and then fly back to Vietnam. Saigontourist also intends to cooperate with foreign shipping lines to exploit domestic customers, but current regulations require the company to be 100% Vietnamese capital to exploit domestic customers. If we rent or buy their ships, each costing billions of USD, with a small number of customers, the business will certainly suffer losses.
What opportunities for Vietnamese shipping lines?
A 5-day, 4-night cruise on a small ship costs 20,000 - 30,000 USD/person, while a 6-day, 5-night cruise ticket to visit Singapore - Malaysia - Thailand costs only about 1,000 USD/person. If choosing the small segment, building ships with a capacity of 200 - 500 passengers is not enough to cover the loss. GreenlinesDP once rented a 500-passenger cruise ship from San Diego (USA) to Vietnam to operate the route Ho Chi Minh City - Con Dao - Phu Quoc but had to give up because the cost of fuel, equipment depreciation, crew, service staff... was too high, it was impossible to "split" the heads of the passengers to recover the capital, not to mention making a profit. And if the price is too high, it will "fail". In general, under current conditions, it is very difficult for Vietnam to build a large and strong shipping company.
Mr. Tran Song Hai (General Director of DP Green Technology Company Limited - GreenlinesDP)
Thanh Nien Newspaper organizes Workshop "Open visa, restore tourism"
As one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to reopen after the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam has the lowest tourism recovery rate compared to other countries in the region? According to VisaGuide.World announced at the end of 2022, Vietnam's tourism recovery rate is currently only 18.1%, while neighboring countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia or Cambodia all have rates of 26 - 31%. The important reason is that the number of international visitors, a group of visitors who play an important role in Vietnam's tourism industry, has not met expectations. The proof is that in the 3 years before the Covid-19 pandemic, the average number of international visitors to Vietnam was only 1/5 of domestic visitors but contributed about 58% of total tourism revenue. In 2022, we set a target of attracting 5 million international visitors but only reached 3.5 million visitors. In 2023, Vietnam plans to attract 8 million international tourists, but this number is facing a huge challenge as China has not yet included Vietnam in the 20 countries that issue group visas.
One of the reasons why Vietnam opened early but international visitors are fewer than neighboring countries is visa-related issues. To revive tourism, aviation, accommodation and service businesses that are facing great difficulties; to restore tourism, the country's spearhead economic sector, Thanh Nien Newspaper will organize a workshop "Opening visas, restoring tourism" at 8:30 a.m. on March 10 with the participation of leaders of competent state agencies; experts, leading businesses in the fields of tourism, services and aviation in Vietnam. The goal of the workshop is to propose solutions and proposals to attract international visitors, thereby restoring tourism, contributing to the country's economic growth.
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