Thursday, Jun 14, 2012
Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam, which many still associate with its war with the US in the 20th century, is currently booming as a tourism destination in the Far East with a promising economic growth.
The Chinese are coming in hundreds of thousands. The South Koreans and Japanese are coming too along with Americans, Europeans and other Asian nationalities. They come to enjoy the Tet spring festival, which is the traditional New Year, and to play golf, or relax on beaches that are cheaper than other Asian destinations.
Nearly 6 million tourists visited Vietnam last year; 3.5 million out of them visited Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), which is considered the lively economic city of the country.
These numbers “to us are not really so ideal, and we try to make them better,” said Ong Ngugen Thanh Rum, director, of HCMC Department of Culture, sport and tourism.
Approximately, 80 percent of the tourists arrived by air, and 60 percent of the visitors come back for a second visit, the official said through a translator during a meeting with a group of foreign journalists arriving on the first non-stop daily flight inaugurated by Emirates Airline on June 4th.
The move of Emirates, which became the first Arab airline company to have such daily flights, coincides with plans of other airline companies to start flights to the Far East County, expected to be among the top fastest growing markets in a span of few years.
Among the other airlines planning to launch the Vietnam route in the next 18 months include Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, Air Hong Kong, Jeju Air of South Korea, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Air China, Silk Air of Singapore, Finnair of Finland, America’s United Airline and Japan’s All Nippon Airways. Already, Qatari Airways has flights to Vietnam on its schedules but they are through Bangkok. Turkish Airline has direct flights to Vietnam.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV), the country is expected to receive between 34 million and 36 million passengers a years by 2015, and between 52m and 59m by 2019.
Tourism has boosted the economy of the country by US$ 6 billion last year, almost half of the revenues were generated from tourists in HCMC.
Vietnam is “trying to develop tourism in all aspects, but focus mainly on the tradition of the festival and cultural related activities,” said Rum.
Cultural similarities between Vietnam and its neighbors as well as geography are believed to be among the main reasons behind the fact the top three countries in terms of tourists are Asian nations: China, Korea and Japan respectively.
The three traditional countries come within the “traditional” tourism market for Vietnam. Other countries include Singapore and the United States. Vietnam is eyeing on other markets, including United Arab Emirates and India, as “potential markets”.
Apart from launching its own promotional campaigns, Vietnam is also part of an Asian campaign dubbed “Four countries, One destination”. The promotion includes Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.
Also, “we send performers and artists to traditional and potential markets to promote the image of Vietnam,” said Rum.
The country is focusing on many types of tourism, including history tourism, family tourism, health care tourism, shopping tourism and eco-tourism in rural cities, where visitors could spend some time with Vietnamese families away from the noise of the city.
And different tourists express different preferences.
“It is lovely, it is quite and not many people (are here), said Lucie Wenz, a banker from Germany told Gulf News of her 3-day-visit to a southern resort in the country. She already spent one month in visiting different cities in Vietnam. Lucie has visited almost all the far eastern countries, she added.
And for corporate director from Singapore, who declined to be named, he likes to spend two days with his daughter in a resort because “we don’t have beaches ( in Singapore). We had beaches 40 years earlier, but not any more,” he added in reference to the rapid modernization process in Singapore, one of the most prominent financial cities in the world.
Some Vietnamese resorts, officials and tourists agree, are still underdeveloped unlike some other Asian resorts in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, many foreigners working in Vietnam head to the “very popular in weekends” resorts, the Singaporean executive said.
Many Koreans and Japanese are working in Vietnam, and they constitute the biggest investors in manufacturer, Asian businessmen said. The big tourists groups come from Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
The Singaporean executive noted that many Japanese tourists come to enjoy playing Golf in the several “good golf courses” built around Ho Chi Minh City.
Relatively cheaper prices in Vietnam are also another attracting factor for foreigners and local tourists as well.
“The prices here are reasonable,” said a couple of Vietnamese-Americans, who traveled away from the city to spend more relaxing time with their two daughters and sister-in-law with her son from HCMC.
Asked whether Vietnam is looking for a certain model to copy, Rum explained that his country tries to look as many models as possible, “but choosing a specific model for us is impossible, because there is a difference in economic conditions …. Each country has different strengths and weakness.”
“So we try to learn from the models in neighboring countries, but not to follow any specific one,” he explained.
But at the same time, Vietnamese tourism officials acknowledge that their country still lacks the full infrastructure to meet the increasing demand in tourism, hoping to bridge the gap.
“We still lack the (sufficient) number of high class hotels,” said Rum.
Vietnamese official figures show that in Vietnam there are 30 hotels ranked as five starts; 65 of 4 starts, and 135 of three starts. There are also many hotels with one and two starst. Overall, there are 300,000 rooms in hotels of Vietnam.
“We try to build more hotels and restaurants, but to receive more tourists of other countries, I think we still have a lot of room of improvements, especially (more) hotels,” he added.
By Jumana Al-Tamimi Associate Editor
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
