Vietnamese tourism has a strong development potential with many destinations that have been regularly ranked at the top of the world's most worth-experienced destinations and honoured by prestigious international awards.

Foreign tourists visit the relic complex of Ponagar Temple Towers in Khanh Hoa Province. (Photo: Xuan Thanh)

However, unfortunately, the rate of visitors not returning to Vietnam is still quite high. How to improve this situation is a requirement for the country’s tourism sector, when all efforts are made to ensure sustainable growth.

Sharing at the seminar themed “Plans to attract international visitors” which has been held in Hanoi, Dr. Nuno F.Ribeiro from RMIT Vietnam University frankly said, most international tourists to Vietnam assessed it as a beautiful country, but the number of visitors returning to Vietnam is still small.

Head of the Secretariat of the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) Hoang Nhan Chinh gave figures, that the rate of international tourists coming back to Vietnam was only 25-30%, while this number in Thailand reached over 70%. This showed that Vietnam has still many limitations compared with other countries in affirming its competitiveness and attractiveness of destinations.

Meanwhile, in fact, with the wealth of natural and human resources, Vietnam has full strength to develop a variety of products and forms, helping tourists return to Vietnam several times and still find new experiences.

According to Dr. Nuno F. Ribeiro, one of the important solutions is to change the minds of tourists, that Vietnam is a cheap destination that they only need to visit once in a lifetime. Therefore, it is crucial to make a focused communication strategy to highlight the wealth of landscapes, culture and tourist value, towards attracting tourists who love to explore and are affordable. During this process, the participation of YouTubers, TikTokers, Facebookers and each Vietnamese person, will play an important role.

According to many experts, to attract visitors to a country repeatedly, this country should open its doors to welcome guests. It means that immigration-related policies need to be simple, flexible, and convenient for arrivals. However, this is still a “bottleneck” that has existed for many years, making it difficult for Vietnamese tourism to compete with other countries in the region. Martin Koerner, Head of the Tourism Sub-Committee under the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF), said Vietnam needs to quickly study the increase of several countries exempted from visas and enjoying the extension of the duration of visa exemption, as well as the countries that are granted e-visas.

In addition, he stressed the necessity of the improvement of service quality at border gates and airports, because they are the first impressions when international tourists arrive and also the last impressions when they leave.

Foreign tourits explore the beauty of Lan Ha Bay in Cat Ba Island District of Hai Phong City. (Photo: Thanh Truc)

Martin Koerner suggested that Vietnam should add more lanes for special groups of passengers while increasing the number of immigration officers and scanners and changing the way of welcoming and serving tourists officials and employees of immigration procedures, in a more friendly and open manner.

Tourists with real travel needs often return to the destination more than once because the destination can bring diverse experiences to them or offer truly impressive experiences, that others do not have.

Therefore, to attract tourists to come back several times, Vietnam needs to develop a system of diverse and high-quality products, to meet the different needs of many tourists. Nguyen Thi Le Huong, Deputy General Director of Vietravel, said Vietnam needs synchronous solutions to reposition tourism brands and products in a more attractive manner and in line with tourism trends of tourists that have recorded many changes after the pandemic.

In addition to the requirements related to safe and sustainable tourism products, the improvement of the human resources’ quality, the promotion of marketing and communications, and digital transformation, special attention should be paid to the management of destinations, to increase the rate of tourists returning to Vietnam and ensure a healthy tourism environment, said Head of the TAB Secretariat Hoang Nhan Chinh.

It can be said that destination management and the work of education and communications, to improve the professionalism of tourism workers and related services providers, are among the decisive factors that make up the attraction of the tourism industry.

Attracting many visitors is difficult and finding ways to give visitors good feelings and impressions, so that they are willing to return, is even more difficult. However, this is one of the targets of professional tourism art in Vietnam, towards affirming the attractiveness of the country’s tourism on the international track.

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