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Sep 24, 2019 / 09:51

Plunge of Chinese visits affects Vietnam's hospitality industry

Vietnam is one of the most preferred destinations of Chinese people and leads the region in terms of room bookings from China, followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea.

The decrease in the number of Chinese arrivals to Vietnam has resulted to a drop of 3% in Chinese bookings and 10% reduction in revenue per available room in Vietnam's hospitality industry in the first half of 2019, according to Savills’ recent report on the Asia-Pacific tourism market outlook in H1 2019. 
 
Illustrative photo.
Illustrative photo.
Overall, the number of Chinese arrivals to Asian destinations has spiraled downward over the past years and Vietnam is not an exception. The hotel business activities across the region also reported a gray outlook. 

As many as 3.37 million Chinese visited Vietnam in the first eight months this year, down slightly 0.9% from the same period last year, according to General Statistics Office (GSO).

Chinese visotors still account for the lion's share among Vietnam's tourist markets, making up 29.8% of the total foreign tourist arrivals in the eight-month period.

The decline in Chinese tourists is supposedly due to the depreciation of the yuan, the economic downturn as well as the decline of the consumer confidence index.

In addition, only 10% of Chinese people own passport, according to the Chinese Tourism Academy and Ctrip Travel Agency. However, the proportion is expected to double by 2020, thereby, the number of Chinese traveling abroad will increase, especially to neighboring countries, including Vietnam or Thailand. 

Vietnam is one of the most preferred destinations of Chinese people and leads the region in terms of room booking from China, followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Vietnam’s tourism industry is expected to thrive as the number of foreign arrivals to the country reached 8.5 million, up 7.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2019. 

Of the amount, the figures of visitors to Vietnam from Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea also achieved impressive growth rates of 45%, 27%, and 21% respectively.