Accelerating international arrivals
If the above growth momentum continues from now until the end of the year, the goal of welcoming 18 million international visitors and recovering the tourism industry to its golden age in 2019 is completely within reach.
Notably, besides South Korea continuing to be the largest market sending visitors with 844,000 arrivals (accounting for 27.7%), the number of visitors from China also recorded impressive growth, 7.5 times higher than the same period in 2023. The number of 538,000 arrivals has brought China to second place in the ranking of the largest markets sending visitors to Vietnam in the first 2 months of this year. These are considered extremely encouraging signals because it is not until before the Lunar New Year 2024 that China will truly open its tourism, removing barriers for people to freely travel abroad.
Vietnam's traditional tourist markets have begun to grow strongly again.
Specifically, during the Lunar New Year, Mong Cai City (Quang Ninh) welcomed about 50,000 tourists, of which more than half were Chinese tourists. From the 29th to the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year, about 40,000 tourists completed immigration procedures through Mong Cai International Border Gate and more than 10,000 domestic tourists registered to stay. Of these, more than 20,000 were Chinese tourists visiting Vietnam.
Similarly, if during the Lunar New Year 2023, there were only a few flights bringing Chinese tourists to Khanh Hoa, then they stopped completely due to the epidemic and China's group tourism policy, then this Tet Giap Thin, the number of Chinese tourists coming and registering to travel to Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa has skyrocketed. From February 6 to 15, Cam Ranh International Airport welcomed about 150,000 international visitors with more than 850 flights, and the leading number was also Chinese visitors with 430 flights, about 60,000 visitors, equivalent to 21 flights/day.
Along with China, Russian tourists - one of the largest "regular" tourist streams of Vietnam - are also making a vibrant comeback after a period of absence due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. On two consecutive days, October 24-25, 2023, two transit flights in Taraz brought 427 Russian tourists to Phu Quoc, marking an important milestone when flights to Eastern Europe and Central Asia were reopened.
Since then, Russian tourists have always been on the list of the top markets of the pearl island. Many 4-star hotels and above in Phu Quoc reported that room occupancy during the Lunar New Year holiday reached 90% or more, mostly international visitors from Korea, Taiwan, Poland and Russia. By the end of February, the number of Russian tourists had increased by nearly 59%, and Vietnam was among the 10 most popular destinations for Russian tourists in February, according to the report of the Association of Russian Travel Agents (ATOR). Recently, Aeroflot (Russia) officially launched a trial flight from Moscow to Ho Chi Minh City, bringing with it the hope that the number of Russian tourists visiting Vietnam will increase rapidly this year.
Improve visitor spending
Despite positive signs from the beginning of the year, tourism businesses believe that the recovery of the inbound market still faces many challenges. Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications and Marketing at TST Tourist, said that China is still Vietnam's largest tourist market and is very difficult to replace. The goal of welcoming 18 million international visitors, and even quickly reaching 20 million visitors in 2024, depends largely on this flow of visitors.
Before the pandemic, our airlines operated about 200 flights per week to many provinces and cities in China. Of the 18 million international visitors to Vietnam in 2019, there were about 6 million Chinese visitors, most of whom took charter flights to Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Ha Long. Every day, the central provinces could welcome about 50-70 charter flights bringing Chinese visitors. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam is still "insignificant". Compared to countries like Thailand and Singapore, our recovery rate is quite slow.
According to Mr. Man, if in 2023, the tourism trend of Chinese tourists is still unpredictable and the forecast is not accurate, the situation in 2024 will be much clearer. The billion-people market has begun to shift and countries like Thailand and Singapore have quickly launched strong policies to welcome this huge flow of tourists. Recently, China and Singapore have approved bilateral visa exemptions. Thailand is also relying on tourists from China and does not hesitate to exempt visas for this market to achieve the goal of having at least 30 million Chinese tourists in 2024, accelerating the speed of tourism recovery beyond the mark before the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Countries have started to take action, we cannot stand still and continue to miss opportunities. Vietnam should also pilot the visa exemption policy for Chinese visitors and some potential tourist markets that tourism businesses and associations have proposed many times. If successful, Vietnam will take an important step forward in the visa opening process, realizing the goal of welcoming 18-20 million international visitors in 2024," a representative of TST Tourist suggested.
Meanwhile, there are also opinions that there is no need to worry too much about the number of international visitors to Vietnam this year because, as Mr. Thai Doan Hong (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Trade Union Tourism Joint Stock Company) commented, Vietnam has many advantages. Improvements in visa policies and product diversification from all localities have brought many of our destinations continuously to the top of attractive tourist destinations in the international arena, attracting the attention of many foreign visitors.
In particular, the change in awareness, towards sustainable and stable tourism of most components in the tourism ecosystem has been implemented very well, there is no longer a situation where hotels and restaurants massively "take advantage" of the season to increase prices and do business opportunistically. This helps Vietnam's tourism prices to be quite competitive compared to other countries in the region. Thanks to that, besides the traditional flow of tourists from China, Russia, Korea, Japan, the name Vietnam is also affirming its brand very well in the eyes of tourists from India, Australia, America, Western Europe...
However, what Mr. Thai Doan Hong is more concerned about is quality, reflected in the spending power of tourists. Observing from 2023 to present, Mr. Hong has noticed that tourists' spending has decreased significantly. Inbound tour guides also confirmed that tourists have limited their spending quite a bit. The economic situation is difficult, tourists still have the opportunity to travel, eat, and buy souvenirs, but they are no longer as generous as before, but are somewhat more "stingy".
"We can proactively respond to issues related to visa policies or products, but it is difficult to influence the issue of tourists' limited income. Therefore, to improve tourists' spending ability, it is necessary to pay attention to improving the quality of gifts and souvenirs. When meeting high-quality OCOP standards, local products will be consumed better. Along with that, diversifying experiences, services, and products will help tourists spend more," said Mr. Thai Doan Hong.
In addition to the strong growth of traditional tourist flows in Southeast Asia and North Asia, markets in Europe have also grown vigorously, especially markets that enjoy unilateral visa exemption policies such as: UK (up 32.6%), France (up 34.6%), Germany (up 37.1%), Italy (up 82.3%), Spain (up 48.5%)...
Source link
Comment (0)