Removing the latch for the private economy to break through: Removing the 'golden ring' for tourism

Visa bottleneck

As the input and output of many "money-making" manufacturing and service industries, tourism has been identified as a spearhead economy for decades. However, compared to its potential and advantages, Vietnam's tourism has not been able to break through due to the "golden hoops" that bind it. That is a concern but also a space for the domestic smokeless industry to break through all limits, contributing to the country's economic growth.

As a leading tourism development enterprise in Vietnam, the leader of Sun Group Corporation has repeatedly proposed visa relaxation to accelerate tourism. According to this person, in recent times, Vietnam's visa policy has had many significant improvements, but has not yet created a breakthrough. This is even more evident when looking at Thailand, which is considered a competitor of Vietnam tourism, which has relaxed its visa policy 2-3 times since the Covid-19 pandemic and has so far exempted visas for more than 90 destinations, while continuously launching preferential policies for potential international tourist markets... Thanks to that, the number of visitors to Thailand has grown remarkably.

Compared to other destinations in the region such as Malaysia with visa exemption for 156 countries, Singapore with 162 countries and the Philippines with 157 countries, Vietnam's visa policy is still inferior. Therefore, the representative of Sun Group proposed that the Government and relevant ministries and agencies continue to remove and expand the list of visa-free countries, especially prioritizing target and potential markets such as New Zealand, Australia, China, India; groups of visitors from emerging and high-potential markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Central Asian countries, European and North American visitors, etc.

Russian tourists at Cam Ranh International Airport (Khanh Hoa) on the afternoon of March 17, 2025 after a 3-year suspension. According to experts, if the bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies are removed, Vietnam's tourism industry will rise up, truly becoming a spearhead economic sector, contributing to the country's growth target.

PHOTO: BA DUY

This is also the issue that Mr. Pham Ha, founder and Chairman of Lux Group, mentioned first when talking about the bottlenecks of the domestic tourism industry. Mr. Ha analyzed that Vietnam has too many advantages in natural resources for tourism to develop into a key economic sector, creating a spillover effect, stimulating the service, transportation, real estate, construction industries, etc. to develop together, earning foreign currency on the spot. The spillover effect, contribution and potential of the tourism industry have been clearly seen by the Government, demonstrated through the goal of making tourism a key economic sector that the Politburo identified since 2017, through the issuance of Resolution 08. However, the relationship with many industries has unintentionally become a barrier for tourism when it is "tied down" by many regulations, not removed for a long time, creating institutional bottlenecks that prevent Vietnam's smokeless industry from breaking through.

"For many years, the tourism industry has been tirelessly requesting to expand the visa exemption list but has had to give in due to concerns from other industries," Mr. Pham Ha emphasized.

Vietnam tourism still has a lot of room to break through to match its potential.

Vietnam tourism needs to remove many bottlenecks to accelerate to become a destination of the continent, reaching the world.

PHOTO: NA

Looking back over the past years, especially since the opening up after the Covid-19 pandemic, visa relaxation is the policy that experts and businesses in the tourism ecosystem have recommended and proposed the most. However, up to now, the number of countries exempted from visas when entering Vietnam is still very modest. Recently, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to study appropriate visa policies, especially for traditional friendly countries, diversifying visa exemptions with some countries and subjects such as billionaires in the world. Experts and tourism businesses are waiting for the Prime Minister's direction to be realized soon because not only will it increase tourism revenue and promote destinations, attracting experts, talented people and billionaires in the world will help Vietnam increase foreign direct investment, contributing to the development of capital markets, real estate, technology and many other fields.

Infrastructure, promotion, products are all weak

A bottleneck that has also been reported by most businesses in the tourism ecosystem is that the transport and airport infrastructure is still not synchronized and has not met the growth requirements of the smokeless industry, especially at key destinations. The story of Phu Quoc airport being overloaded in the past is typical. Currently, the Government and localities have had timely instructions to improve Phu Quoc airport infrastructure. However, there are still a number of other destinations that need to improve their transport and airport infrastructure, typically Da Lat, Nha Trang, Con Dao, Sa Pa, Hue, etc. Airports in major tourist centers such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat, are also overloaded, and service quality is not guaranteed to serve tourism. "Timely and long-term solutions are needed to remove obstacles in transport and airport infrastructure for potential destinations to increase the capacity to serve international visitors, especially high-end visitors," a representative of Sun Group suggested.

Terminal T3 of Tan Son Nhat airport is making efforts to complete the final stages, preparing to serve the upcoming April 30 holiday, contributing to solving problems related to traffic and airport infrastructure.

PHOTO: NGOC DUONG

Similarly, the tourism industry's tourism promotion and advertising work is still limited. According to businesses, the budget for tourism promotion and advertising in Vietnam is still very modest compared to neighboring countries. Vietnam tourism does not have a comprehensive strategy for tourism promotion and advertising. The approach is still quite traditional and there are no outstanding campaigns. Vietnam's tourism information websites and pages for international visitors are not really attractive, not multilingual and lack interactivity. In particular, most of the promotion and advertising campaigns do not really have a close connection between the Government, localities and businesses to optimize communication effectiveness.

International cruise ship tourists visit Ha Long Bay. According to experts, Vietnam needs to further open visa policies to compete to attract international visitors to Vietnam.

PHOTO: LA NGHI HIEU

Vietravel Corporation Chairman Nguyen Quoc Ky also repeatedly worried: Direct investment in tourism is still too little. The tourism industry is still struggling with the story of promotion and advertising without money. The tourism development investment fund exists but operates like the state budget, making it difficult and slow to use. Tourism promotion agencies abroad have been talking about it for a long time but have not been able to implement it. Every locality has raised the priority policy of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, but the plan for land allocation and infrastructure allocation is still sluggishly implemented following the procedures of one law and another regulation. That is a typical example of the "golden hoops" that hinder the development of the tourism industry.

The difficulty of "binding" product output creates another bottleneck for Vietnam's potential but compressed tourism industry. "Investment in building high-end and unique tourism products. Currently, many destinations in Vietnam have focused on investing in increasingly new and classy tourism products such as Phu Quoc, Da Nang, Hanoi, Sa Pa... However, overall, we still lack high-end tourism products and truly classy cultural tourism products with local characteristics. To improve our competitive position on the international tourism map, investing in developing high-end tourism products, especially cultural tourism, is an inevitable trend towards sustainable development," said a representative of Sun Group.

Outdated, mass-produced, unremarkable products, according to Mr. Pham Ha, are the result of policy bottlenecks. Therefore, businesses want to innovate, do more, meet the demands of high-end customers, spend a lot of money, but cannot do it. "We talk about attracting customers to spend money, but what will they buy when there are no classy shopping and entertainment venues? The mechanism for opening duty-free zones, duty-free shopping areas, casino areas... is not available, there are all kinds of problems. If we want to build classy resort complexes, the bidding and land allocation mechanisms... are also very difficult...", Mr. Pham Ha pointed out.

The voice of the tourism industry has no weight

Vietravel Corporation Chairman Nguyen Quoc Ky acknowledged: The whole country does not have more than 10 enterprises that are competitive enough in the tourism industry. Therefore, he hopes that the Government can understand the feelings of enterprises before creating policies, joining hands to form a fast, strong and sustainable tourism ecosystem. Specifically, quickly change the mechanism, amend the outdated Tourism Law; open visa policies with countries in the region. Next, it is necessary to amend and perfect the policy on value added tax (VAT); adjust the electricity price applied to tourist accommodation establishments to be equal to the electricity price for production; tourism promotion fund, amend the law to open Vietnam's tourism promotion offices abroad. In particular, it is necessary to open a mechanism for tourism enterprises to access capital sources. It is possible to consider reducing bank interest rates for loans of tourism enterprises according to the principle that the lending interest rate is not higher than 3% compared to the deposit interest rate; loosen lending regulations of commercial banks for working capital loans...

At the same time, consider and remove difficulties for tourism business activities on agricultural land and farm land; have special policies to develop the night-time economy, policies to prioritize infrastructure development associated with tourism, encourage public-private cooperation in investment and operation of airports and tourist ports; policies to encourage investment in the construction of theme parks, cultural works, entertainment complexes, trade centers, retail services, etc.

"These recommendations have been submitted to the Government many times by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. If only 50% of these bottlenecks can be removed, tourism can achieve high targets. The tourism industry really needs a breakthrough change in awareness, perspective and policy, so that tourism can truly become a spearhead economy," Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky emphasized.

Mr. Pham Ha also agrees with the policy and viewpoint that tourism is identified as a key economic sector, but the strategy is still very general, without a clear direction for businesses to determine their development direction. The main policies and recommendations so far have focused on the state-owned enterprise sector, while the private enterprise sector has very little say in policy making. From general policies on visas and taxes to support suitable for the private enterprise sector, the tourism industry has almost no or has to rank behind other industries. In particular, the overlap between laws makes it difficult for businesses to break through.

For example, a business wants to build a Farmtrip area or an eco-tourism product in the forest to suit the new trend of tourists, without affecting the natural landscape, without causing negative impacts on the environment, but it is very difficult to implement because of the Land Law, regulations from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Or like Lux Group, which operates a yacht business on Cat Ba Island, tourists want to go to the beach to swim but cannot, because the beach is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and swimming is prohibited. Ha Long Bay is similar, there are hundreds of beautiful natural beaches but only one beach is exploited, where thousands of people crowd together every day. Resolution 36 on developing the marine economy mentions tourism as one of the pillars, but 72% of tours related to the sea and islands face many prohibitions on national security. Or cruise ships are built according to international standards but are not recognized but "demand" to follow Vietnamese standards, so the inspection industry does not inspect them...

"Private tourism enterprises are mostly small and medium-sized, with weak potential and having to replace the management agencies. Therefore, enterprises cannot grow, and the tourism industry cannot accelerate to match its potential. Basically, the voice of the tourism industry is still too small. Private tourism enterprises like us do not need any special mechanism, we just need to remove the prohibition mindset to manage, remove the general policies mentioned above, and we will have enough space to break out," the Chairman of Lux Group emphasized.

If the bottlenecks and "golden rings" are removed, according to businesses, Vietnamese tourism will rise to the top in the region in attracting foreign tourists, activating a series of industries from services, accommodation, trade...; truly becoming a spearhead economic sector, contributing to the country's growth target in the new era.

Tourism human resources are entangled in many regulations.

Vietnam currently does not have a university specializing in tourism training. Most of the current training faculties and majors do not meet the demand, and businesses have to spend a lot of time and money to retrain. Meanwhile, some human resources such as tour guides, like in foreign countries, only need to be good at languages, proficient in skills and knowledgeable about destinations; but in Vietnam, they require a college or university degree. Therefore, the source of tour guides is seriously lacking, especially in countries with rare languages. We call for expanding the market, attracting tourists from many countries to Vietnam, but the story of who does the work, who can lead tourists is not discussed.

Mr. Pham Ha , Chairman of Lux Group

The State needs to really care about tourism businesses. Not only direct businesses but also businesses related to tourism development such as: aviation, consumer goods processing, providing services to serve tourism needs such as resort real estate... have not received proper attention in the past. This force is currently struggling, its "health" is unstable, very vulnerable and faces many risks. Most importantly, bottlenecks must be resolved systematically. If it is fragmented, disjointed, and bottlenecks are solved wherever they are done, the efficiency will be very low. Vietnam's tourism is gaining momentum and potential, we must join hands to push that momentum and potential up to explode, creating a breakthrough to bring Vietnam's economy to a high and sustainable growth rate.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien , former Director of Vietnam Economic Institute

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thao-chot-de-kinh-te-tu-nhan-but-pha-go-vong-kim-co-cho-du-lich-185250318222740704.htm