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Tourists in the Bay Mau Coconut Forest in Hoi An city (Photo: sggp.org.vn)
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According to information from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the number of international visitors to Vietnam in July 2024 reached 1.15 million, an increase of 10.9% over the same period last year. In the first seven months of this year, the total number of international visitors reached nearly 10 million, an increase of 51% compared to the same period in 2023 and an increase of 1.9% compared to the same period in 2019.
In recent years, Vietnam has been honored by many prestigious awards such as World Travel Awards and ASEAN Tourism Awards. This shows that Vietnam's tourism industry is increasingly recognized by the world, thereby gradually affirming its position in the world tourism industry.
Vietnam is widely known for its natural beauty with long coastlines, majestic landscapes and mysterious caves. In addition, unique local cultural features, imbued with tradition, hospitable people, reasonable travel costs, safe and convenient destinations are also reasons why more and more tourists choose to visit Vietnam.
With the general goal of the plan, by 2025, Vietnam will become an attractive destination with high tourism development capacity in the world. Continuing that growth momentum, by 2030, Vietnam's tourism will truly become a spearhead economic sector, developing in the direction of green growth and gradually affirming its position as one of the leading destinations in Asia.
However, to fully exploit the available tourism potential and achieve the set goals, Vietnam needs to quickly implement a series of synchronous and comprehensive solutions. One of them is to invest in developing tourism infrastructure, such as upgrading the transportation system in key tourist areas; improving and building more hotels, resorts and homestays meeting international standards.
Tourism products also need to be developed in a more diverse way, aiming to bring new experiences, bringing tourists closer to nature, as well as getting closer to the people’s life, thereby helping them better understand the unique cultural features of the locality. In addition, forms of resort tourism, MICE tourism or discovery tourism also need to be given more attention to develop. Vietnam has a great advantage of abundant labor force, however, the foreign language capability and soft skills of the tourism industry's human resources are still limited, so strong investment in training high-quality human resources with knowledge of tourism, foreign languages and communication skills is an urgent requirement to improve service quality. At the same time, ensuring security and order is also an important factor in creating a friendly and attractive image for the country in the eyes of international tourists.
In addition, sustainable development associated with environmental protection is a vital trend that the tourism industry can’t ignore. With the rapid increase in the number of tourists today, Vietnam needs to have stronger and more drastic measures to raise public awareness and develop sustainable tourism products. Saying no to the use of disposable plastic products and non-degradable nylon bags at tourist accommodation establishments and other service businesses in coastal region is the latest goal set by Vietnam for 2030.
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Trainees of a Restaurant – Hotel Customer Service Training Course (Photo: tuoitre.vn)
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Having many attractive tourism potentials, however, promoting Vietnamese tourism still has many limitations. Current promotional images are not diverse enough, not fully exploiting the diverse beauty of the country. In addition, the application of technology in tourism marketing, such as digital marketing and data explore, has not been fully utilized. This makes it difficult for Vietnam to highlight its difference from other tourist destinations in the region.
To make Vietnam more prominent on the world tourism map, it is necessary to have a comprehensive strategy including strong investment in marketing, building a professional and unique national brand image through online and offline media channels, developing diverse tourism products, as well as enhancing coordination between related sides.
With its existing potential, Vietnam can completely turn tourism into a green economic sector, positively contributing to the country's sustainable development. Tourism development in this direction will help preserve cultural and natural values, while creating unique tourism products to attract tourists. This will not only bring economic benefits but also contribute to enhancing Vietnam's image in the international arena./.