Evolution of Vietnam Tourism Continues

PHOTO: The 2,000 islands of Halong Bay are a mainstay of Vietnamese tourism. (courtesy Orient Flex-Pax)

Vietnam’s long history of struggle with foreign militaries is finally past, but now in a long awaited age of peace, the country finds itself struggling to pull its identity as a destination out from the overpowering images of the Vietnam War.

Without a real budget to form its own brand, Vietnam’s image has been formed only narrowly by a handful of attractions, its main cities and a handful of hotels. Vietnam has a vast amount of areas beyond the beaten path and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is hoping to increase its meager $1 million promotional budget 15 fold so that Vietnam can shape its own identity going forward.

To achieve that the VNAT is petitioning the government for permission to charge each overnight foreign visitor a dollar per night tax. Proponents of the tax believe it would raise about $15 million, which would give the VNAT a much better handle on promotions.

“Our Vietnam travelers have evolved over the years,” said Rosaline Doustan, the vice president of Orient Flexi-Pax. “Beaches have emerged as a really important element for our travelers.”

Even without much push from the VNAT new destinations are emerging. While the roughly 2,000 islands of Halong Bay are well established with tourists, a new option is emerging off the coast in the South China Sea.

As the site of a brutal prison system (site of the infamous tiger cages) operated first by France then by the U.S., the 16 islands in the Con Dao chain seem like an unlikely place for a luxury resort, but the 119-room Six Senses Con Dao with its 50 private-pool villas goes a long way toward changing the reputation of these isles. In 2013 Con Dao’s arrivals increased 49 percent to 19,000.

Vietnam Airlines offers three times a day service to Con Dao from Ho Chi Minh.

Ecotourism is another growing aspect of Vietnam. A new four lane highway is under construction that will connect Hanoi to the cultural, scenic and natural grandeur of Ninh Binh a mountainous province of lakes and cave systems about 50 miles from Hanoi.

Ninh Binh’s Bai Dinh Pagoda is a center of Buddhist pilgrimage and the province is also home to the Tam Coc-Bich Dong river and cave complex. For Ninh Binh the new road will offer a chance to dramatically increase visitation. Officials hope to attract a million foreigners by 2015.

VNAT figures show that Vietnam received 7.4 million international tourists and 35 million domestic tourists in 2013, earning about $9.2 billion altogether. The VNAT is targeting 8 million foreign visitors this year and would love to increase its share of U.S. visitors. In 2013, between January and November some 396,300 Americans visited Vietnam.

Cruise travelers are adding a new dimension to Vietnam’s source markets. In December, the Celebrity Millennium brought 3,000 American, British, Canadian and Australian tourists on a six-day cruise up and down the coast. According to Saigontourist more than 170,000 foreign cruise tourists and crew visited Vietnam in 2013.

“Tourism is evolving rapidly so rapidly in Vietnam,” said Doustan, “infrastructure, hotels, new destinations it just keeps coming.”

It’s hard to believe that Emeraude Classic Cruises just celebrated 10 years of offering cruises on Halong Bay. Now it’s one of Vietnam’s true legacy products. The Emeraude took its name from a French-owned paddle wheeler that cruised the bay between 1906 and 1937.