What strategies can be used to draw tourists from abroad?

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The risks ahead

Vietnam's tourist industry has steadily lost its top spot despite being one of the first in ASEAN to reopen tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic's two-year impact. Just 18.1% of the region's countries have recovered their tourism industries, including Thailand, which reopened at the same time and has a recovery rate of 22%. Vietnam even lags behind nations that reopened later, such Malaysia at 27.5% and Singapore at 30.9%.

The tourism sector in Vietnam hopes to receive and accommodate eight million foreign tourists in 2023. This is a significant and difficult objective, especially given that Vietnam's number of foreign visitors in 2022 fell short of expectations.

Dr. Nuno F. Ribeiro, Senior Vice President of Tourism and Hospitality Management at RMIT University Vietnam, assessed that Vietnam's tourism might benefit greatly from participation in international competitions in 2022 as well as regular and dense appearances on numerous well-known media channels. However, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia will be Vietnam's rivals as they promptly abolished COVID-19 restrictions and profited from less onerous visa and entry requirements..

Hoang Nhan Chinh, head of the secretariat for the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board (TAB), revealed a depressing statistic: as Vietnam enters the tourism fray again, less foreign tourists are coming. The economic development of the nation and the areas where tourists stay are considerably boosted by successfully luring quality international visitors. Foreign visitors often stay for a long time (8–12 days) and spend a lot ($1,100–$2,000/trip). Prior to the pandemic, there were 18 million foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2019, which is equal to 21% of domestic visitors, but the resulting revenue accounted for two-thirds of the industry's total earnings.

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Attract tourists through a favorable visa policy

Experts noted that Vietnam's current policies are not compelling enough to draw tourists, despite objective factors like the lingering epidemic, the economic downturn, and international wars.

Many foreign tourists have retured to Vietnam

Dr. Nuno F. Ribeiro said that Vietnam's administrative processes are time-consuming, its marketing initiatives are ineffective, and its proportion of repeat foreign visitors is low when compared to other nations in the region.

According to Mr. Martin Koerner, who chairs the tourism subcommittees of the Vietnam Economic Forum and Eurocham, the limit  ed and convoluted visa policy is also a significant problem. Also, the immigration processes at border crossings and airports are not welcoming or effective, which gives visitors a bad impression and discourages them from returning.

Dr. Ribeiro suggests quick fixes to these problems, such as enhancing electronic visas, expanding visa-free travel to new nations, streamlining administrative processes, and promoting Vietnam's culture and landscape on airplanes.

Mr. Hoang Nhan Chinh agrees that the tourism industry should focus on creating favorable visa conditions, such as electronic visas and visa exemptions, and establish long-term visa policies with major tourist markets like the US, China, and India. Furthermore, the application of facial recognition technology and passport readers should be promoted to facilitate immigration management.

In the long term, Dr. Ribeiro suggests that Vietnam's tourism industry should identify specific customer segments and markets, switch to a group of tourists who can spend more and stay longer for more experiences, and turn them into ambassadors who will promote Vietnam's tourism through word of mouth. By implementing these measures, Vietnam can attract more international visitors and improve their overall experience.