Vietnam’s tourism rapidly thaw, ready for vigorous growth
After a long period of being frozen due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam's tourism has reopened and quickly reaped the positive results, ready for a new period of strong growth. The improvement of Vietnam’s travel and tourism development index in 2021 put the country among the world’s top 3 highest ones.
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| According to the World Economic Forum, Vietnam’s travel and tourism development index in 2021 ranks 52nd, up 8 places compared to 2019, among the 3 nations with the best improvement in the world. In the photo: Hoi An ancient town from above. |
Marvellous achievements
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry recorded remarkable growth. Its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gradually increased over the years, specifically got 6.3% (in 2015), 6.9% (in 2016), 7.9% (in 2017), 8.3% (in 2018) and 9.2% (in 2019).
This result has asserted that tourism is gradually becoming a economic spearhead of the country. The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020-2021, Vietnam's smokeless industry faced numerous difficulties and fell into a freezing point.
With the efforts exerted by the entire political system, army and people, Vietnam has kept the disease at bay thanks to rapid COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, and promptly reopened the economy.
After the official reopening of the post-COVID-19 period (March 15, 2022), the industry of "green economy" recorgnized positive results, initially recovered and impressively developed.
According to statistics from the National Administration of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the first 7 months of 2022, Vietnam welcomed 954,000 international visitors, an increase of nearly 9 times compared to the same period in 2021. The average growth rate for the first 7 months of the year reached 62% monthly.
In the first half of 2022, the agency has appraised and granted 312 new licenses to international travel businesses (an increase of 286 compared to that of 2021), renewed 65 licenses and revoked 38 licenses.
As shown in the statistics, by the end of June 2022, there are 2,415 international travel businesses recorded, about 33,330 tourist accommodation sites with 667,000 rooms, among which are 215 5-star hotels with 72,000 rooms, 334 4-star hotels with 45,000 rooms, etc.
The prospects of recovery for businesses in the tourism sector are also brighter when the number of businesses returning to operation is on the rise. The reopening of tourism has also contributed to creating more jobs for laborers.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, since the beginning of 2022, Vietnam has joined the group of the highest growth rate in the world (50-75%).
Searching volume for tourist accommodation addresses in Vietnam in July 2022 reached 100 points, 5.9 times higher than at the beginning of March 2022 (17 points).
A similar trend happens with searching for international flights to Vietnam. By early July 2022, the search volume tripled compared to the beginning of March 2022.
Last month, the prestigious travel magazine Travel+Leisure (USA) put Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City on the list of 10 best cities in Southeast Asia; Vietnam's two islands, Phu Quoc and Con Dao, are also included in the list of the top 10 islands in Southeast Asia.
According to the World Economic Forum, Vietnam’s index of travel and tourism development capacity in 2021 was ranked 52nd, up 8 places compared to 2019, among the 3 countries with the best improvement in the world.
Ready to accelerate
In spite of initially remarkable recovery results, in the immediate future, the tourism sector faces many challenges.
At the conference to review activities over the first 6 months of 2022, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet pointed out the difficulties and limitations that this sector is facing, such as limited infrastructure and overloaded aviation.
Particularly, the large number of laborers in the sector quitting their jobs or taking long leaves during the pandemic has led to a severe shortage of human resources, affecting the quality of customer service.
Therefore, leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism suggested the National Administration of Tourism in the last 6 months of the year focus on preparing well for the National Conference on Tourism (expected to take place in early 2023) and emphasized the need for long-term orientations and visions for the tourism sector’s development.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism should also closely coordinate with the Tourism Development Support Fund to implement and step up activities to promote the brand of Vietnam's tourism to the international market, completing the Tourism System Planning for the period of 2021-2030, with a vision until 2045; research and constructing new models of tourism development such as models of regional development, sea and island tourism development and community tourism.
From now until the end of the year, Vietnam's tourism sector has reportedly planned to participate in a number of international tourism fairs, such as JATA International Travel Fair in Japan (September 22-25), WTM World Travel Fair in the UK (November 7-9) and festivals, programs to introduce Vietnam tourism in key markets (Korea, Japan, Taiwan-China, Europe, North America, Australia, and etc.).
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| Vietnam's tourism development strategy toward 2030 has defined that tourism development will truly become a spearhead economic sector. In the photo: Hue ancient capital - a famous tourist destination. |
Besides, Vietnam’s tourism will be introduced at the ITE International Tourism Fair in Ho Chi Minh City (September 8-10), a tourism promotion program of the Greater Mekong Subregion within the framework of Mekong Tourism Forum (MTF) in Hoi An, Quang Nam (October 9-14).
Vietnam's tourism development strategy toward 2030 has stated that tourism should be developed as spearhead of the national economy, creating a driving force to promote the development of other industries, making an important contribution to the formation of a modern economic structure.
According to the strategy, by 2025, total revenue from tourists will reach 1,700-1,800 trillion VND, average growth rate will rise to 13-14% yearly, directly contribute about 12-14% of GDP; create about 5.5-6 million jobs, including 2 million direct jobs.
The smokeless industry will strive to welcome at least 35 million international travellers and 120 million domestic visitors, maintaining the average growth rate of international visitors at 12-14%/year and domestic tourists at 6-7%/year.
To realize this strategy, Vietnam has been implementing many solutions synchronously; developing unique, characteristic, branded and highly competitive tourism products; creating favourable conditions to attract more tourists and being ready for the acceleration phase.
(Translated by Gia Nguyen)
