Published on : Thursday, December 27, 2018
The annual growth rate of international visitors travelling to Vietnam has reached 30% over the past three years and the tourism sector is contributing 7.5% to the country’s GDP. In 2017, Vietnam ranked sixth among the top ten fastest growing destinations in the world and attracted US$15 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) to tourism by the end of last year, generating jobs for over two million people. However, the Vietnamese tourism sector should make important changes to avoid hitting the threshold.
In 2017, Vietnam welcomed nearly 13 million international tourists, earning US$8.3 billion. By the end of this year, the number reached over 15 million. However, compared to Singapore (US$18.4 billion) and Thailand (US$52.5 billion), this figure is quite low, and not equal with the potential of the country.
Each foreign visitor to Vietnam spent an average of only US$900 per trip, while the spending in Thailand was US$1,565 per trip. This shows that although Vietnam has great potential in tourism and this industry has strongly developed, the level of tourism development is still behind many countries in the region.
Disadvantages of accommodation infrastructure are noticeable. Hanoi now has 67 luxury hotels with over 10,000 rooms. In 2017, the capital city welcomed 4.9 million international visitors and nearly 19 million domestic tourists. There are 641 operating hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, including 10 five-star and 26 four-star hotels. All of them are always operating at full capacity. However, the number of hotels in other important destinations, such as Nha Trang, Da Nang and Phu Quoc, are extremely limited. Hence, in order to serve a large number of visitors, particularly foreigners, tourism infrastructure must be ramped up.
Tags: Vietnam Tourism