International visitors lack reasons to spend money in Vietnam

International tourists need more experiences when coming to Vietnam. Photo: Pham Ha

According to Dr. Pham Trung Luong - former Deputy Director of the Institute of Tourism Research, the spending level per guest in Vietnam is currently 7.5 USD/person/night, a rather modest figure compared to other countries in the region.

Some industry experts say that to change this, Vietnamese tourism needs to have more new products to "pick the wallets" of tourists.

Tourists have nothing to spend

In fact, many international tourists when coming to Vietnam commented that there is a lack of valuable and diverse products for them to shop or there are no suitable shopping places to spend money.

Will (a British tourist) and two friends chose Vietnam as the final destination in their journey to explore Southeast Asia. When asked about the cost of traveling in Vietnam, all three commented that it was very cheap.

Foreign tourists on Hanoi's train street. Photo: Hai Nam

"Services in Vietnam are quite affordable. The prices are much lower than in my country," Will shared.

The male tourist added that tourism services in Ho Chi Minh City are relatively complete and not inferior to other destinations. However, this destination still does not have many special activities to attract tourists who want to spend more.

Similarly, Korean tourist Sohee also commented that the prices for food and beverage services in Vietnam are not too high. A good example is coffee. The female tourist said that in Korea, she had to pay almost double the price compared to Vietnam for the same drink.

The average spending of international tourists in Thailand is 30 USD/person, Singapore is over 100 USD/person. Mr. Luong commented that our country is seriously lacking in night economic spots such as entertainment - shopping - dining complexes.

Statistics from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Global Tourism Economics Research Center (GTERC) show that Chinese tourists spend the most on overseas trips in the world and have an average trip spending level among the top in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is also one of the major outbound markets of Vietnamese tourism. However, their spending in our country is quite low, only reaching nearly 50% of the average spending of this group of tourists when traveling abroad, about 1,850 USD/person before the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the 2023 National Online Conference on Tourism with the theme "Accelerating Recovery - Accelerating Development", Sun Group Chairman Dang Minh Truong also emphasized the role of international tourists' spending on Vietnam tourism.

"In 2019, the number of international visitors to Vietnam was 18 million, equal to 21% of domestic visitors, but the revenue of this group accounted for nearly two-thirds because they had a long stay, from 8-12 days," he said.

In key markets, international visitors can stay up to 15 days, spending 1,100-2,000 USD/trip. This figure is quite different from the domestic market, where visitors mainly travel on weekends, stay 1-2 days and spend less.

Need to develop more potential products

Statistics from World Data on the history of international visitors to countries in the Southeast Asian region from 2008 to 2019 show that other destinations have basically maintained their average revenue per visitor. Vietnam is on the decline from 5th to 6th place.

According to Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of the Inter-Pacific Group, the main reason why international tourists "come with money and take money home" is because Vietnam has not yet developed two very potential product lines: health tourism and shopping and entertainment tourism.

This person commented that Thailand and Singapore are two countries that are doing very well in "picking the pockets" of tourists from shopping tourism. This type of tourism contributes to a strong increase in international spending revenue with a compound growth rate of 28.2% in 2020.

Vietnam still lacks activities to attract luxury tourists. Photo: Thanh Duc

In addition, when coming to the Land of Golden Pagodas, tourists can fully experience models such as mid-range or high-end shopping malls, factory outlet shopping malls selling seasonal branded goods, duty-free shops, fabric markets, fashion markets...

In Singapore, this destination has become a shopping paradise for foreign visitors because of its tax-free policy and the abundance of shops and shopping centers.

As for the health tourism model, the Global Wellness Institute's report shows that the scale of this type in 2020 was 436 billion USD and is forecast to increase to 1,128 billion USD by 2025. This is considered one of the markets with the highest revenue in all types of tourism.

In Thailand, health tourism products contributed up to 4.7 billion USD in 2020. If Vietnam prioritizes developing this market, this could become a key sector in the near future.