Vietnam has been famous for attractions such as Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Son Doong cave, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue and Sapa. Vietnam this year recorded at receiving 13 million foreign tourists, up 28 per cent against last year. The country also ranked 67th among 136 economies in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, putting it among the 10 most-improved since 2015.
According to a survey conducted by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the number of return international visitors stood at around 20 percent. But last year, the Pacific Asia Travel Association, a non-profit group, estimated that only 6 percent of first-time visitors to Vietnam ever return.
To put things in perspective, around 60 to 70 percent of travelers to Thailand, which received a record 33 million international arrivals in 2016, are repeat visitors. The return rate is also around 60 percent in Singapore, which was visited by 16.4 million foreigners last year.
Pham Trung Luong from the Association of Tourism Training in Vietnam said that the main reason why vvery few first-time foreign visitors to Vietnam choose to come back is the poor tourist product as well as entertainment services.
Luong analyzed that tourists only return to one destination when they have different experiences compared to what they had in the past, or there are special points that other destinations do not have. Vietnam has many beautiful landscapes and historic monuments but it needs more investment to make it attractive enough to lure visitors coming back.
Besides the low return rate, the poorness also reduces the spending of visitors when they come to Vietnam, causing a decline in the country’s tourism revenue, Luong said.
Echoing Luong, Luong Hoai Nam, member of the Tourism Advisory Board, said that Vietnam has failed to exploit many potential areas, including the advantages of developing historical tourism.
“We have a lot of world’s famous war sites but only few have been exploited with poor and unprofessional tourist quality,” Nam said, adding that the system of museums is also poor.
Besides, experts have also said that the country’s visa policy is also considered cumbersome and not tourism-friendly. Currently, Vietnam offers visa waivers to visitors from only 23 countries including ASEAN co-members. Indonesia, one of the world’s most liberalized countries for visas, grants visa-free travel to 169 countries. Singapore allows 158 nationalities to enter visa-free, while the figure for Malaysia is 155 and Thailand 61.
In June, the government extended its visa-waiver scheme for visitors from five European countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - by another year. But industry insiders said that the policy should be open for more foreign travelers, including those from key markets such as Australia, Canada and India.
The country has set a target of welcoming 20 million foreign visitors in 2020 and developing tourism into a key economic sector. According to the insiders, one way of achieving that goal is to offer visa waivers for important markets.
Luong also suggested that the tourism industry should urgently make a comprehensive assessment on the current systems of tourist products. Then, it should invest in products which have the ability to attract visitors to come back.
"Resort tourism is a type of tourism that attracts many tourists. Vietnam now has many luxury resorts with the highest quality in the world so that the country can focus on developing this type and make it becomes a typical tourist product of Vietnam," Luong proposed.
Caption: Foreign tourists keep flocking to Vietnam, but whether they come back is another story.
