Visa-free and short-term visitors are both reduced.
In terms of the 2023 target, Vietnam tourism has achieved impressive results. South Korea continues to be the largest market sending visitors in the first 9 months of 2023 with nearly 2.6 million arrivals. The Chinese market has surpassed the 1 million mark, ranking 2nd. Taiwan surpassed the US to take 3rd place with 575,000 arrivals. The US ranked 4th with 548,000 arrivals. Japan ranked 5th with 414,000 arrivals.
However, all 5 largest tourist markets of Vietnam tourism mentioned above have not recovered to the same state as before the pandemic, specifically in 2019. The best recovery is the US tourist market, reaching 96.4%; South Korea 82.3%, Taiwan (85.3%); Japan about 60%...
Vietnam tourism still struggling to return to its old peak
Notably, the traditional Chinese market has only achieved a recovery rate of 28.2%. Before the pandemic, the Chinese market accounted for nearly 1/3 of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam. In the period 2015 - 2019, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam increased 3.3 times from 1.78 million to 5.8 million.
In addition, nearby markets in the Southeast Asian region, which are convenient in distance, have not yet returned to normal, such as Malaysia at 76.9%, Philippines at 84%...
Traditional tourist markets in Europe, which have enjoyed Vietnam's visa exemption policy for many years, and since August 15, the length of stay has been increased from 15 to 45 days, have not yet fully recovered. For example, Germany has recovered the best but not 100% at 87.1%; Spain at 82.4%; the UK at 78.9%; Italy at 76.7%; France at 71.9%. Not to mention Russia, also one of the visa-free tourist markets, which has almost not recovered.
Overall, in the first 9 months of the year, despite exceeding the target of 9 million international visitors, Vietnam's tourism recovery only reached 69% compared to the old peak of 2019.
Seeing Thai makes me worried.
Tourism expert Nguyen Duc Chi said that the recovery of international visitors worldwide is slower than expected due to the prolonged global difficulties. For example, Japan had 1.2 million outbound tourists in August 2023, reaching more than 1 million for the first time in a month since the pandemic broke out, but the result was still down 43.1% compared to August 2019.
There are many reasons why Japanese tourists are limiting their travel abroad, but the main reason is that the weakening Japanese yen has caused very few Japanese to plan international trips in 2023 and next year. "It is understandable that the number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam has decreased by nearly half compared to the same period in 2019," Mr. Chi emphasized.
Boats carrying tourists to visit Cai Rang floating market
However, American tourists are different, according to Forbes, 40 million Americans traveled abroad from the beginning of the year to July, officially surpassing the pre-pandemic level of 2019 by more than 8%. Popular European destinations such as the UK, France, and Germany maintained their dominance in the US tourism market, with a total of 11.7 million Americans traveling to Europe, attracting 29.1% of all US citizens traveling abroad. Thus, Mr. Chi believes that not all international tourism markets are affected by the global economic crisis or geopolitical conflicts...
There are many other reasons why the number of international visitors to Vietnam has not yet recovered 100%, such as direct flights not being fully resumed, visitors changing their travel habits when choosing nearby destinations... However, the most important issue is that competition between destinations in the region is extremely tense. Bali, Indonesia, focuses on attracting Australian visitors because of its short flights; Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are focusing on Chinese visitors... "The race to attract visitors, especially Thailand, is leaving us behind," Mr. Chi emphasized.
Just a few weeks after the new government came into power, Thailand immediately approved a temporary visa exemption policy lasting 5 months for Chinese visitors, from late September to February 2024. These are the 5 peak months for the billion-people tourist market with many major holidays, especially the 8-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, the New Year holiday, and then the Lunar New Year.
In addition, the company that operates Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok has just launched a pilot satellite terminal with an investment of about 1 billion USD to welcome the expected influx of visitors. With this new terminal, Suvarnabhumi's annual passenger capacity will increase from 45 million to 60 million.
Airlines have also joined in, increasing flights and improving connections to destinations in China and other key markets. Thailand's largest airline, Thai Airways, said flights from China to the country are now 90% full...
Immediately after the visa exemption policy was approved, the number of hotel bookings by Chinese tourists in Thailand increased by 6,220% compared to the same period last year. The Thai tourism industry is expected to attract 2.9 million visitors and about $4 billion in revenue thanks to this program in the next 5 months.
Thailand has welcomed 19.5 million international visitors so far this year and expects 28 million for the whole year. With that number, Thailand aims to fully recover its tourism industry next year with 40 million international visitors, equal to the peak in 2019.
Mr. Chi said that if Vietnam does not accelerate, it will be difficult to reach the number of 18 million international visitors in 2024 like in 2019. "We also have a new visa policy where visitors from any country can get an electronic visa, the stay period is up to 3 months or the stay period for visa-free visitors is increased from 15 to 45 days. However, we lack promotional programs to help tourists recognize it. From October onwards is the peak season for international visitors and we are waiting to see how the number of visitors will increase from the impact of the new visa program mentioned above," Mr. Chi said, adding that Vietnam needs a conductor and a strategy to accelerate tourism after Covid-19, where all "combat" plans can be synchronously and uniformly managed, like the way Thailand is operating.
Vietnam adjusts to 13 million international visitors
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the remaining months of 2023, Vietnam's tourism sector can welcome at least 1.1 to 1.2 million international visitors each month, especially during the peak month of December, it can welcome more visitors. On that basis, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has calculated and will report to the Government to raise the target of welcoming international tourists in 2023 from 8 million to 12.5 to 13 million visitors (an increase of about 156% compared to the original target).
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