Quite a difference
According to data reported by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, from January to April 2024, there were about 290,000 Vietnamese visitors to Thailand, down 5.4% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, in the first 4 months of the year, there were only 164,000 Thai visitors to Vietnam, down 18% compared to the same period in 2023.
According to the report "Overseas travel trends of Vietnamese tourists - Summer 2024" by The Outbox Company (a market research and tourist data analysis company in Vietnam) recently published, Vietnamese tourists are generally still loyal to traditional destinations such as Korea, Japan, Singapore and especially Thailand.
Of the Vietnamese tourists planning to travel abroad in the next 12 months, 79.7% plan to take the trip this summer. Notably, 22.2% of the tourists surveyed have already booked their trip.
The above figures show that the demand for overseas travel, especially during the summer, of Vietnamese tourists is increasing, much more than the demand of Thai people. However, these figures are also worth pondering for those working in tourism in Vietnam.
Returning to the “difference” between the number of Vietnamese and Thai tourists, from the perspective of a travel business, CEO Sunvina Ta Huu Chien acknowledged that in reality, Thai services are suitable for the needs of Vietnamese people from cuisine to entertainment… Especially, the professionalism in services. Along with that, Thailand’s communication and promotion work is very strong. That is why the “Land of Golden Pagodas” always attracts a large number of visitors.
The Power of 5F
According to Mr. Chien, to attract foreign tourists in general and tourists from Thailand in particular to Vietnam, the authorities need to have synchronous direction. Along with services that ensure competitive prices, immigration policies, administrative procedures such as tax exemptions and reductions, and airfares need to be reduced...
“Services need to be linked together to create products with more attractive prices. In Thailand, to create competitive prices, tours are supported by shopping destinations. Only then can travel companies balance their finances and maintain promotional activities,” said Mr. Chien.
Sharing the same view, talking to PV of Dai Doan Ket Newspaper - General Director of WonderTour Tourism Company Le Cong Nang said that Thailand is always in the top 5 countries with the highest tourism revenue in the world with over 63 billion USD. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the golden time of tourism in 2019 only welcomed about 19 million international visitors. It can be said that at any time, the number of international visitors to Thailand is still about 2 times higher than that of Vietnam. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the first 4 months of 2024, Vietnam welcomed 164,000 Thai visitors while Thailand welcomed 290,000 Vietnamese visitors.
Explaining this “difficulty”, according to Mr. Nang, one reason is that Thailand is promoting tourism promotion activities with a focused strategy and a large budget. In 2023, Thailand spent up to 93 million USD on promoting and developing sustainable tourism based on meaningful experiences and taking advantage of the country’s 5F soft power foundation – Cuisine, Film, Festival, Muay Thai and Fashion. The second reason comes from the high price of domestic airfares in Vietnam, preventing international tourists from making long trips to tourist cities.
Invest $93 million to get $63 billion
Some experts believe that in order to attract international tourists to Vietnam in the coming time, specifically in the last 6 months of the year, we need to promote tourism promotion activities to potential markets, especially exploiting the advantages of beach tourism. Management agencies in the industry need to orient and coordinate to create competitive tourism products in terms of price and quality on the basis of the total benefits between travel businesses, transportation businesses, and destination tourism businesses.
Director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute (ATI), Chairman of the Vietnam Community Tourism Association (VCTC) Pham Hai Quynh said that one of the important reasons is that airfares from Vietnam to Thailand are often cheaper than domestic travel. Up to now, Thailand has always been a country with great tourist attraction, especially the best subsidies to attract visitors to their country. Along with attracting visitors, they have improved infrastructure, tourist destinations in line with market trends, created many experiences, many shopping centers to maximize the resources spent to support attracting visitors.
Thailand has a variety of tourism activities, from culture, cuisine to natural beauty, attracting a variety of tourists, including Vietnamese tourists. Thailand's system of advertising and attracting tourists is also highly appreciated. From the overview of Thai tourism, we can see the picture of Vietnamese tourism at present more clearly.
According to Mr. Quynh, Vietnam needs to invest in upgrading its transportation system, especially its air routes and airports, to reduce transportation costs and increase its competitiveness with other tourist destinations. It is necessary to cooperate with tourism partners in Thailand to develop quality and attractive tour packages for tourists, and create joint marketing strategies to attract tourists from Thailand. It is possible to attract international tourists by developing forms of community-based and sustainable tourism, such as ecotourism and cultural tourism, which help create unique experiences for tourists and protect the country's natural resources. In particular, upgrading tourism infrastructure as well as the quality of tourism human resources is also a very important issue at this time.
Currently, China, Thailand, South Korea... are very active in organizing Famtrips to attract travel agents who are Vietnamese travel businesses with large supported costs such as Famtrip Chongqing - Jiuzhaigou (China) for only 7.9 million, or Famtrip Kanchanburi (Thailand) also from only 7.9 million...
“Thailand spent 93 million dollars on tourism promotion but brought in revenue of up to 63 billion dollars. Vietnam's revenue is over 26 billion dollars but the tourism promotion budget is only about 2 million dollars. So if it is a general business problem, can we invest more to have greater revenue?” - Mr. Nang shared.
Looking at the trends during the recent April 30 and May 1 holidays, it shows a change in the movement and choice of tours by Vietnamese people. In the context of high airfares, most tourists have switched to traveling by train and car. Obviously, compared to previous years,
People's travel choices have changed a lot, requiring tourism professionals to be flexible and creative in developing products and stimulating tourism demand.
Source: https://daidoanket.vn/vi-sao-du-lich-thai-lan-hut-khach-10282222.html
Comment (0)