Chinese tourists travel less, spend less in Vietnam

In the context of a poor economy, Chinese people are not ready to spend much on tourism. In Vietnam, this group of tourists tends to choose Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc, reducing the number of visitors to Nha Trang.

Globally, China is set to be the world’s largest sending market in 2023. The country’s tourism industry is on track to recover strongly from the pandemic, with bookings up about 400% in 2024 compared to the peak of 2019, according to a report by Sabre, the main booking system of Vietnam Airlines.

In Vietnam, the "world factory" has lost its international market share to South Korea in the past two years. In the first nine months of 2024, China ranked second in terms of the number of visitors to our country, reaching 2.7 million (accounting for 21.3% of the total number of international visitors), according to data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

However, Dr. Duong Duc Minh, Deputy Director of the Institute for Economic and Tourism Development Research (ITERD), said that South Korea is only temporarily holding the "throne". China will return to lead the international tourist market in the next few years when its economy stabilizes again.

The "huge" numbers

China is a rare market that has maintained the number of visitors to Vietnam at millions from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, Vietnam welcomed an unprecedented number of Chinese visitors.

Specifically, right from In 2014, Chinese tourists began to dominate the foreign tourist market in Vietnam with 1.8 million visitors, despite some tensions in the island region. However, the growth rate has not reached the same level as Russian tourists.

In In 2015, the number of international visitors to our country decreased significantly, but in return, there was an increase in domestic visitors. The reason was due to the tension in the two countries' sea areas and the devaluation of the Russian ruble. This led to a decrease in the number of visitors from the two key markets, China and Russia. Chinese tourists alone visited Vietnam at about 1.78 million.

In 2016, the international tourist market gradually recovered, marking the growth of visitors from the country of a billion people. Our country welcomed 2.7 million Chinese visitors, an increase of 51% compared to 2015 and ranked first in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam.

2 Chinese tourists in Ho Chi Minh City in October. Photo: Linh Huynh.

The figure of 2.7 million visitors in 2015 almost doubled in In 2017, after the pilot phase of issuing e-visas to international tourists, our country welcomed 4 million Chinese visitors, an increase of more than 1.3 million compared to 2016. At this time, some coastal destinations such as Nha Trang, Da Nang, Ha Long Bay... attracted the most Chinese visitors. Notably, Nha Trang.

Vietnam reaches 15.5 million arrivals In 2018, an increase of 19.9% compared to 2017. The highlight of the foreign visitor data picture continues to be Chinese visitors. This country has the largest number of tourists coming to Vietnam, 4.96 million, accounting for nearly 1/3 of the total number of international tourists coming to Vietnam. Second place belongs to Korea with 3.48 million.

The number of visitors from the "world's factory" to our country is unprecedented. 2019. The peak number was 5.8 million visitors. In general, in the period 2015-2019, the proportion of Chinese visitors compared to the total number of foreign visitors to Vietnam tended to increase, from 23% in 2015 to 32% in 2019.

From 2020 to now, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam has recovered positively and at one point surpassed Korean visitors to return to the No. 1 position in the foreign visitor race (May).

However, from the perspective of some travel agencies, the growth rate of Chinese tourists after the Covid-19 epidemic is still only average.

Chinese customers have changed

The flow of tourists from China to Vietnam has changed significantly after the border was opened. The most noticeable changes are in spending levels and habits of choosing tourist destinations.

About spending power , Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Marketing and Communications Director of Vietluxtour Travel Company, commented that before the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of middle-class and high-end Chinese tourists accounted for a fairly good proportion of the total structure of tourists in our country in general and the unit in particular. However, in recent years, this market segment coming to Vietnam has been mostly ordinary tourists with an average budget for each trip.

Data from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that during this year's Labor Day holiday, the number of tourists increased by 28.2%, but spending increased by only 13.5% compared to the same period in 2019. This means that spending per tourist decreased by 11.5% over the five days, according to a survey by Societe Generale bank.

Urban Chinese people were more inclined to save in the first quarter, according to a report by the People's Bank of China.

Phu Quoc attracts international tourists thanks to its pristine scenery and convenient flight routes and ticket prices. Photo: Vinh Gau.

Similarly, Mr. Ha Tuan Minh, Chairman and Director of Vietnam Winner International Travel Company Limited in Phu Quoc, also noticed that the spending level of Chinese tourists cannot be compared to the time before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Besides, the choose destination In Vietnam, Chinese tourists have also changed.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Khanh Hoa (with a focus on Nha Trang) was the leading destination in the country in welcoming visitors from the mainland. In 2019, the coastal city welcomed more than 2.5 million Chinese visitors, accounting for more than 70% of international visitors to the province. With such a "huge" number, the Nha Trang tourism industry even created a supply chain just to serve this group of visitors such as language, signage, consumer behavior...

However, up to now, the market recovery has not reached what the locality expected. According to statistics from the Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism, in the first 9 months of 2024, the locality welcomed more than 500,000 Chinese visitors, only about 27% compared to the same period in 2019 (nearly 1.8 million visitors).

Tourists sit for hours at Nha Trang's famous train street cafe just to catch the moment the train passes by. Photo: Tuong Vi.

Share Regarding the reason for this sharp decline, Mr. Pham Minh Nhut, Vice President of Nha Trang Tourism Association, said there are two main reasons.

First, China has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The travel ban has been in place for a long time, leading to a drop in people’s income.

Second, the Chinese government has launched many policies and incentives to promote domestic tourism. As a result, the Chinese market has witnessed an increase in domestic travel.

Besides, some other reasons come from people's tastes as well as policies of Chinese travel businesses that are changing to suit current conditions.

"Currently, Chinese travel companies bring tourists to Nha Trang mainly from insurance companies that apply promotional policies when registering for insurance packages. The number of tourists on tours is not much, leading to a decrease in charter flights compared to 2019," said Mr. Nhut.

Mr. Zhu (a Chinese tourist) and his wife enjoy food in Ho Chi Minh City before moving to Cambodia. Photo: Linh Huynh.

Meanwhile, Ms. Thu from Vietluxtour said that Chinese tourists are "moving south", choosing Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc more in the past few years.

However, Mr. Minh from ITERD assessed that Nha Trang will still be a "must-visit" destination for Chinese tourists. Big names in the Chinese tourism industry have a certain interest in the coastal city.

"In the short term, fewer Chinese tourists come to Nha Trang because of the slow recovery of the country's economy and the tightening of spending, not because they are too familiar with Nha Trang," said Mr. Minh.

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