HCMC – Vietnam should deliver a message that the
country is safe to tourists as workers protests against China’s illegal
deployment of an oil rig in Vietnam’s waters in mid-May are over, suggested
Kenneth Atkinson, managing partner at Grant Thornton (Vietnam).
At a
press briefing on Wednesday announcing the 2014 annual survey on hotel service
in HCMC, he said such promotion needs support from the Government. Besides,
Vietnam Airlines should offer free trips to Vietnam for foreign travel agents
to help them look into the actual situation.
Though
protests of workers in HCMC, Binh Duong, Ha Tinh and Dong Nai provinces no
longer occur, many foreign tourists do not know of this situation since they
access information via foreign newspapers which may contain some misleading
stories. This can leave a negative impact on tourism.
According
to Atkinson, the impact of tensions in the East Sea on tourism mainly results
from protests in Binh Duong and Ha Tinh as tourists are concerned about safety.
Meanwhile, the declining number of tourists from Hong Kong and China is mainly
a result of political factors.
He
added that East Sea tensions will continue affecting Vietnam’s tourism,
including the business performance of hotels and resorts. The central region
and some northern provinces will be most impacted as they used to cater to a
large number of Hong Kong and Chinese tourists in the past.
Foreign
arrivals in Vietnam in the January-June period still rose 21.1% to over 4.28
million. However, according to Grant Thornton, Vietnam’s hotels and tourism
have been adversely affected by the East Sea situation.
According
to Grant Thornton’s survey conducted with 18 hotels, there were 14,945 rooms of
three- to five-star hotels canceled until July.
However,
Atkinson was still optimistic when forecasting foreign arrivals in Vietnam may
rise 15-20% this year. He added that tensions in the East Sea only affect
Chinese arrivals while the number of Singaporean, Malaysian, Australian and
Russian visitors to Vietnam is forecast to soar in the coming time.
In the
long run, issues concerning the East Sea will not impact business activities of
hotels and resorts. Nevertheless, instead of focusing on attracting Chinese
tourists, hotels should also shift their attention to other visitor-generating
markets, according to Atkinson.
Big
groups of tourists from Taiwan and China contribute much to Vietnam’s tourism
but they do not spend much. Therefore, Vietnam should attract individual
tourists from the U.S. and European countries, he noted.
According
to the 2014 survey on hotel service of Grant Thornton, business travelers,
individual tourists and tourists traveling in groups were the three main groups
in 2003-2013. The growth rates of the two latter groups were 3.1% and 2.8%
respectively last year.
Tran
Thu
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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