How to draw foreign tourists back to Vietnam

Lorijon Bacchi, country manager of Visa in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, said: “tripadviser.com-- a prestigious travel guide website in the world, recommends its readers that the best way of travel in Vietnam is hiring a bike and drive it from the North to the South. It is a very strange advice!”

“Coming to Vietnam, I know local tour guides’ joke ‘going to museums in the morning and to the water puppetry theatre on the evening. And I understand the above advice. Vietnam has many fascinating things to discover. But it’s the best that you discover them yourself.”

In 2011, Visa implemented its sixth global travel trend and this was the third time Vietnam was in the survey.

Attractive destination

According to the survey, with its distinctive culture, beautiful natural landscapes and affordability, Vietnam emerged as one of the top destinations for travellers from Singapore, Thailand, Australia and South Korea. 

Forecasts on the nation's tourism sector for the year ahead predict that 24 percent of inbound travellers to Vietnam will be from Singapore and Thailand (12 percent from each country), followed by Australian visitors accounting for 10 percent. The survey also highlighted a growing number of tourists from South Korea.

Natural scenery, good deals and promotions as well as political stability were cited as the key factors for visiting Vietnam over the next two years. While in Vietnam, future inbound travellers surveyed on their travel plans said they planned to enjoy outdoor activities, take food tours to explore the local cuisine and experience the local night life.

Lorijon Bacchi said that with tourism emerging as one of Vietnam's key economic drivers, the survey results came at an idea time to show where visitors to Vietnam would be coming from and what would motivate them in choosing destinations. 

"Using data from the Visa Global Travel Intentions Survey 2011, the Vietnamese tourism industry can now identify opportunities to attract more tourists based specifically on inbound traveller preferences," said Bacchi.

The Visa survey quizzed over 11,000 travellers across 23 countries about their travel plans and preferences over the coming years. Interestingly, a large number of those surveyed said they would be willing to pay a premium for food (64 percent), want to visit exotic destinations (65 percent) and experience the local culture (63 percent). Similarly, variety of food and dining options and lower travelling costs were also cited as key reasons for future inbound travel decisions. 

Bacchi said most inbound travellers to Vietnam had already travelled to popular Asian destination Hong Kong. Many had also already visited nearby Asian destinations such as mainland China and Malaysia.

Vietnam was likely to have mostly new visitors, who had not visited the country before. While variety of food offered was the key reason for past inbound travellers, future inbound travellers would revisit a place for its low travelling costs. Beautiful natural scenery attracted both past and future inbound travellers.