Don't let international flights 'die young'

(Baonghean) - Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Director of Nghe An Department of Tourism said that next July, a survey will be conducted to open a direct flight from Vinh to China. This will be the third international flight route to be operated at Vinh International Airport, after the Vinh - Vientiane and Vinh - Bangkok routes ceased operation.

According to information from Nghe An Department of Tourism, the direct flight to China is one of the notable results of the Nghe An tourism promotion program in China taking place from May 10, 2017 to May 20, 2017.

The destination of the flight will be one of two cities: Kunming of Yunnan and Chengdu of Sichuan. The expected flight type is charter. This flight is identified as one of the steps to lay the foundation for the strategy of attracting tourists from the Chinese market, developing the tourism industry of the province.

Chengdu on Google map.

This is also the general direction of tourism in the whole country to promote exploitation of the large neighboring market. In 2016, Chinese tourists accounted for 27% of the market share of international visitors to Vietnam, a significant increase compared to 2015 and is currently the number one market sending tourists to Vietnam.

Can the 'curse' be avoided?

Previously, there were 2 direct international flights operated from Vinh International Airport.

The first is the Vinh - Vientiane route launched by Vietnam Airlines on January 12, 2014. With survey results showing that on average, each year there are nearly 180,000 passengers from Vietnam to Vientiane through the border gates of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa, this route is expected to operate effectively, becoming an aviation bridge between the North Central region with Laos and Thailand.

The market was surveyed as having such potential, but after its launch, this route has continuously been in a state of lack of passengers. In 2014, Vietnam Airlines provided more than 10,000 seats but the number of passengers did not even reach 50%. Nearly 50 flights in the year had to be canceled due to the low number of passengers.

According to Vietnam Airlines' accounting, the airline suffered a loss of nearly 750,000 USD from the Vinh - Vientiane route in 2014. On October 25, 2015, Vietnam Airlines officially stopped operating the Vinh - Vientiane route.

Vinh International Airport. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In June 2016, Vietravel launched a direct flight from Vinh to Bangkok in the form of a charter flight. This is a product that the company has successfully exploited in other localities such as Can Tho, Nha Trang, Hue, Da Nang. Unlike the Vinh - Vientiane flight, the Vinh - Bangkok flight was linked to tours, package routes and the travel tastes of the people at that time, so it operated quite effectively.

However, this route has now been discontinued, with the reason given by Vietravel: “Vinh airport’s infrastructure cannot meet international flights. The aircraft we use is an Airbus A320 with a capacity of 180 people, much larger than the aircraft used for the Vinh - Vientiane route before. The airport’s infrastructure such as waiting rooms, baggage conveyors, and personnel are not enough to best serve international passengers.

We are currently suspending this route, firstly to wait for the airport to upgrade its infrastructure. Secondly, after a period of “trial operation” and seeing that it is effective, we will work with airlines to open an official route instead of hiring charter flights.”

Thus, for different reasons, both of the above routes “died young” after a short period of operation. This makes many people worry whether the direct flight from Vinh to China can avoid the “third time’s the charm” curse.

It is worth mentioning that Vinh Airport is currently the fastest growing airport in Vietnam, but if we look at the not-so-bright results of international flights from this airport, should we look back to see which is the promising market share that needs to be focused on exploiting?

Domestic or international guests?

According to statistics from the Department of Tourism, in the first 5 months of 2017, the number of tourists staying in Nghe An was about 1.4 million people, of which international visitors were only over 29,000 people, accounting for about 2%. The number of visitors served by travel agencies in the first 5 months of the year was over 18,000 people, of which international visitors were over 2,600 people, accounting for about 14%.

The number of international visitors increased compared to the same period in 2016, but only accounted for a small portion compared to domestic visitors.

Chinese passengers check in at Vinh International Airport. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hoai - Director of Vietravel branch in Nghe An commented: "For most foreign tourists, Nghe An is a transit point, not a destination. If they stay, they will only stay one night on a journey that passes through many other places and provinces. If they only do tours in Nghe An, it will be very difficult to sell.

Previously, Laos and Thailand were two quite good markets but now they are showing signs of saturation. China is of course a very large market, but Chinese tourists have their own characteristics, different from those of Laos and Thailand. They often like to go to the beach and eat seafood - because in the vast mainland there is no sea, the price of seafood is expensive. Chinese tourists also like to go shopping in large shopping malls.

If we compare these characteristics, if Nghe An wants to attract tourists from China, the most promising is still Cua Lo. But Cua Lo alone serves domestic tourists in the summer and is already "at full capacity". If we want to exploit Chinese tourists in the winter, we will have to compete with tourist beaches in the South.

In addition, according to Ms. Hoai, Nghe An is very limited in labor in the tourism industry capable of serving Chinese tourists. If we want to effectively exploit this market, we need to have careful training and preparation before launching new tourism products.

China is the key market for Vietnamese tourism in 2017, is this suitable for Nghe An tourism? In fact, tourism service infrastructure in Nghe An has only begun to improve in the past few short years.

The types of tourism that are commensurate with the infrastructure we have now can only be discovery tourism and spiritual tourism - and even in these two types we are still inferior to provinces in the region such as Quang Binh, Ha Tinh or further away Ninh Binh.

Nghe An's resort tourism is almost entirely dependent on Cua Lo beach, but it was not until summer 2017 that Cua Lo had a high-end resort come into operation (Vinpearl Cua Hoi of Vingroup Corporation). On weekends - except when the weather is bad - Cua Lo is always packed with visitors from the northern provinces. Even visitors from coastal provinces such as Quang Ninh and Hai Phong still come to Nghe An to swim in Cua Lo beach.

Cua Lo beach was crowded during the April 30 and May 1, 2017 holiday. Photo: Lam Tung

Nghe An tourism may be new to international visitors, but it is clear that for domestic visitors, Nghe An is still one of the good choices. Although the infrastructure and services are not yet really complete, it has a convenient geographical location for traveling, reasonable prices and stable quality.

The question is: Have we fully exploited the domestic market? If not, there is no reason why we should not hold on to the easier “piece of cake” before investing too much in the difficult international market that has no promise yet.

Thuc Anh