Rich Indians like to come to Vietnam to buy gold, spend a lot but are 'difficult to please'
Báo Dân trí•22/01/2024
(Dan Tri) - After the pandemic, the flow of tourists from India traveling to other countries is bustling, Vietnam has emerged as the country chosen by many Indians.
In October 2022, Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon (HCMC) dedicated the most beautiful area of the 21st floor to open an Indian restaurant. Standing on the top floor of this hotel, diners can see the entire Saigon River, enjoying dishes prepared by a "genuine" Indian chef. In addition to changes in cuisine, this hotel also redecorated many shops in the lobby, switching to a more diverse and high-end fashion business... to serve the shopping needs of Indian guests. Since mid-2022, Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon's surveys have soon recognized the potential of Indian guests, due to a significant shift in the structure of guests staying at the hotel after Covid-19. From a few small groups of guests, the number of Indian guests staying here has increased by 40%, overwhelming traditional guests such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Bhupi's family of 8 members (in black shirt) from India came to Vietnam for a vacation on the occasion of New Year 2024 (Photo: Toan Vu).
Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon seems to be one step ahead of the market. By mid-2023, people began to witness the bustling appearance of Indian restaurants in all tourist destinations, especially Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Da Nang... By April 2023, India surpassed China to become the most populous country in the world. The high demand for travel, the hobby of spending a lot... turned this country of 1.4 billion people into a "lucrative" market for thorough tourism exploitation.
"New force" in the tourism market with 231% growth
CNN news agency has listed Vietnam among the countries that benefit from the Indian tourism wave after Covid-19. Google's "Top Search Trends 2023" report shows that CNN's prediction was correct when Vietnam ranked first in the top 10 destinations searched by Indian tourists last year. Mr. Nguyen Phuong Nam (31 years old, Hanoi), a tour guide specializing in guiding international tourists, also knows about this information. Phuong Nam shared that in 2023, he led about 12 groups of Indian tourists, serving a total of hundreds of people. For the male tour guide personally, "this is a record number". The structure of international tourists that Phuong Nam serves has clearly changed when the European group no longer holds the sole position. "The ratio of European and Indian tourists is almost equal, and in 2024, Indian tourists may even surpass them," the male tour guide commented. According to the report of the General Department of Tourism, in 2023, Vietnam will welcome more than 392,000 Indian visitors. This number increased by 231% compared to 2019 (nearly 169,000) - the year before the Covid-19 pandemic. The country of 1.4 billion people has become the market sending international visitors to Vietnam with the strongest recovery potential. The General Department of Tourism commented: "The growth rate of Indian visitors is impressive". Especially when the figure of 231% is compared to other traditional markets such as: China has only achieved a recovery rate of about 30%; Russia reached 19% compared to 2019. Another important market of Vietnam in Asia, Japan, also only reached 62%.
(Unit: Thousand visits; data from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism). *No data for 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of Covid-19.
Realizing the potential of the 1.4 billion-people market, Vietnamese travel companies have rushed into the race to welcome Indian tourists in an effort to fill the gap left by Chinese tourists. Many tourism promotion programs have been implemented, a series of Famtrips (experiential tours) with Indian travel partners, participation in international tourism fairs... with the ultimate goal of understanding what Indian tourists need and what their travel needs are. In 2019, the three most popular destinations for Indians were Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. After the pandemic, the flow of tourists from India has been bustling again, and this time, Vietnam has emerged as a notable new name with almost unbelievable growth. The marketing manager of Threeland Travel, a unit specializing in welcoming Indian tourists, said that the number of the company's guests has increased by more than 100% compared to before the pandemic.
Indian tourists arrive in Da Nang in early 2023 (Photo: Minh Hien).
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Hien, Deputy Director of PYS Travel, also shared that in 2023, the company served more than 1,800 Indian guests, with a total of 75 large and small groups visiting and traveling to Vietnam. According to Ms. Hien, this is a positive business result because 2023 is the first year that PYS Travel expands the Indian Inbound market. "Currently, we have also set up a representative office in Mumbai (India) to support promotional activities and develop this market more strongly in the coming time," Ms. Hien said.
Indian guests "spend a lot" on lavish parties
"The Indian group invited me to eat gold-plated beef, and they gave me a tip of 300 USD after the trip ended," said tour guide Vu Ngoc Son, talking about the generosity of the Indian guests. Son said that this was one of the "biggest" international groups he served in 2023. They had only 4 members, all of whom were Indians but were all Christians (not Hindus), so they really liked Vietnamese food.
Vietnamese tour guide was invited by Indian tourists to enjoy a gold-plated beef party (Photo: Vu Ngoc Son).
"They tried everything from pho, fried cakes, crab hotpot to gold-plated beef. When eating expensive dishes, this group of Indian tourists was very generous when inviting me to enjoy them," Mr. Son recalled. After 2 years of being stuck due to the pandemic, Indian tourists have returned to the market with the habit of spending money on luxury tourism services. According to the World Tourism Organization's 2020 report, it is estimated that in 2024, Indian tourists will spend about 42 billion USD on foreign tourism. Although this figure cannot be compared to the spending of Chinese tourists in 2021 at 106 billion USD, it is still a huge amount of spending that the tourism industry of many countries must aspire to.
The Indian billionaire's wedding in Phu Quoc was held in a 5-star hotel with about 500-700 guests in 2019.
When coming to Vietnam, many tour guides said that Indian tourists love to be taken to buy gold, gemstones, pearls or gold-plated embroidery and oil paintings as gifts. "If you take a group of 6 people to a gold shop, 4 of them will buy 1 tael of gold each," said a tour guide. According to Roma, an Indian tourist who has been to Vietnam said that Vietnamese handicrafts are very beautiful, the details of the items are meticulously and elaborately made. "I once witnessed the process of creating a pearl necklace in Phu Quoc, I really enjoyed these items," said this visitor. In 2020, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism published a study showing that the average spending of an Indian tourist staying overnight at an accommodation facility is about 1,200 USD/4-5 days (nearly 30 million VND). This figure is about 1,000 USD, more than 24 million VND, higher than the average of Asian visitors to Vietnam.
Unit: %, data from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in 2020.
In particular, the super-rich in India are very willing to spend money on lavish parties. Indians like to go to Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ha Long, Phu Quoc to hold weddings and they are willing to spend billions of dong on this service. In early 2023, the Indian billionaire couple, bride Tuisha and groom Gaurav, held a wedding at a coastal resort in Da Nang with a group of nearly 500 guests from India. The wedding organizing team brought more than 2 tons of materials, costumes, props... from India to serve the party. Accompanying the billionaire family were photographers and bloggers to promote the event. They stayed at the resort for a week, after the wedding, the group also visited many famous places in Da Nang. A representative of Furama resort (Da Nang) said that from the beginning of 2024, they will organize weddings for 3 Indian bride and groom couples, each group of about 600 guests and staying for a long time. According to this unit, each Indian wedding held at the resort costs billions.
Serving Indian Customers: Understand Correctly to Treat Appropriately
When searching for the keyword "Indian guests" in Vietnamese tourism industry personnel groups, it is not difficult to come across funny and sad stories, especially with hotel staff and tour guides. "The group was scheduled to depart at 7am, everyone was ready to move, but there were a few guests who arrived late but still bought food and leisurely walked around even though there were dozens of people waiting. This caused drivers and service staff to waste a lot of time," tour guide Vu Ngoc Son shared. Similarly, a representative of PYS Travel also said that the most difficult thing when serving this group of customers is the very different beliefs and living habits.
Indian guests are the "most demanding" when it comes to food. They can only eat Indian food, some are vegetarian but it has to be "Indian-style vegetarian" (Photo: Minh Hien).
They have specific requests for Indian menus, vegan food, meal times are often very late and they are often late. In addition, many customers only know Hindi and cannot communicate in English, which is also a big obstacle for service providers. According to experts, the Indian market has great potential but is not easy to serve. Therefore, Vietnam's adaptation efforts and shift in welcoming Indian guests are considered quick, especially in the context that we are losing an important source of international visitors from China. In 2024, the country of 1.4 billion people will continue to be a key market that is fully exploited by travel agencies.
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