 |
| Japanese visitors in Vietnam. | VietNamNet Bridge – The flow of foreign visitors to Vietnam is stronger while tourism infrastructure is lacking. Without an investment strategy, Vietnam’s tourism will incur heavy losses.
Lack of tourism services
Previously, international visitors came to Vietnam to discover the ‘secret’ of a nation with a history of thousands of years and because of the tropical landscapes.
But now, apart from the above things, foreign travellers want to pay highly for entertainment, health care services. However, with the current facilities, Vietnam can’t meet the demands of travellers.
Tran Hung Viet, Deputy General Director of Saigontourist, said: “Many groups of visitors want to seek investment opportunities in HCM City but we can’t find hotels for them, even though we manage many high-grade hotels. Leaders of many hotels announced that the occupancy rates had been over 95% in recent days.”
According to Mr Viet, tourism in the form of MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition) and business delegations have become more popular recently. It is a problem for travel agents to seek accommodations for normal travelers and now they regret not having rooms for visitors who come to Vietnam seeking trade and investment opportunities.
Hoang Tuan Anh, Chief of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said that the shortage of hotel rooms for high-class tourists was predicted before. Up to 10,000 foreign visitors came to Vietnam each day in 2006 and the figure was 12,000 in the early part of 2007. However, the country has only 231 hotels of three to five stars, totaling 25,484 rooms. Most of those hotels are located in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City. However, investing in hotels is out of reach of the VNAT.
Lacking qualified human resources to manage hotels is also a problem, said Mr Viet, who added that his friend owned a four-star hotel in a province but couldn’t find a qualified manager for the hotel.
Other hindrances
Protecting the environment is also an urgent matter. Many local travel agents said that their foreign partners always asked Vietnamese tour providers to follow rules on environmental protection but only several of them could meet the demand.
Tran Khang Thuy, Chairman of Exotissimo, a joint venture travel firm, and Vice Chairman of Apex Tourism Company, said that many visitors of his company were very disappointed seeing Hue royal tombs restored by modern materials; Nha Trang Bay, one of the most beautiful bays in the world, has lost its wonderful coral reefs, which still existed ten years ago, because of catching fish by explosives.
Transportation is also a problem. Many travel companies have to cancel contracts just because Vietnam Airlines lacks aircrafts.
A representative of Vietnam Airlines said that the firm had a fleet of 45 airplanes now. The fleet will increase to 60 by 2010 and at that time Vietnam Airlines can satisfy the traveling need of passengers.
|
Vietnam to welcome 4-4.5 million visitors this year
According to Vu The Binh, Chief of the Travel Department of the VNAT, Vietnam’s tourism industry is going out of its infancy. In 2006, major markets grew highly, especially the numbers of tourists coming from the Republic of Korea (an increase of 29%), the US (16.8%), and Japan (13.4%).
Other markets like Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia saw stable development. Thanks to the clearance of road traffic and strengthened cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the flow of tourists from ASEAN countries to Vietnam highly increased, with 46% for Thailand, 31% for Malaysia and 27.6% for Singapore.
In the first quarter of 2007, more than 1.1 million foreign visitors came to Vietnam, an increase of 13.7% compared to the same period last year. The VNAT aims to welcome 4-4.5 million international visitors this year. |
(Source: Tien phong) | 
