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The number of tourists from Japan and South
Korea is now on the decrease. South
Korea, traditionally the second biggest
inbound tourism market for Vietnam, has
fallen to 5th position, according to the
Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism (VNAT).
VNAT has released statistics showing
that the number of Japanese travellers
decreased by 7% in the first three
months of the year, while the number of
South Korean travellers decreased by
0.8%.
Japan and South Korea have been the two
leading inbound tourism markets for
Vietnam.
The noteworthy thing is that while the
number of tourists from the two leading
markets decreased, other markets
witnessed growth in the first quarter of
the year. The number of Chinese tourists
coming to Vietnam, for example, rose by
60% in the first quarter compared to the
same period of 2007.
In 2007, Vietnam received 450,000 South
Korean tourists and 380,000 Japanese
tourists.
Explaining the decrease, Vu The Binh,
Director of the Travel Department under
VNAT, said that it was because of the
lack of Vietnamese tour guides. With
such a high number of South Korean
tourists, Vietnam needs to have
800-1,000 tour guides, while in fact it
has 50 Korean-speaking tour guides only.
Vietnamese laws do not allow foreign
tour guides to practice in Vietnam,
while it requires a big number of tour
guides to meet the demand.
VNAT has taken a lot of inspection tours
to illegal representative offices of
travel firms in Hanoi and HCM City in
the last time, and expelled some 40
South Korean tour guides from Vietnam.
As a result, the number of South Korean
tourists coming to Vietnam has
decreased.
Acting General Director of VNAT Nguyen
Quoc Ky said that South Korean travel
firms have been doing all the work to
bring South Korean tourists to Vietnam
in the last two years, while Vietnamese
travel firms only play an unimportant
role in tour arrangements.
In order to attract more South Korean
tourists, Ky thinks that it is necessary
to sign a state-level agreement between
Vietnam and South Korea which will
provide a legal framework for South
Korean travel firms and tour guides.
Once the agreement is inked, the
scrambling for clients in Vietnam will
stop.
Regarding Japan’s market, Ky said that
Japanese tourists are now heading to new
destinations, especially ones in Central
Asia (countries which belonged to the
Russian Federation and Mongolia).
“In order to bring them back to Vietnam,
the country needs to renovate tourism
products and change its tourism
promotion methods,” Ky said.
According to VNAT, 1.29mil international
tourists came to Vietnam in Q1, an
increase of 16% over the same period of
last year.
Ha Yen
Source : Viet Nam Net |
