Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s tourism industry is boomingand is fast becoming the driving force behind economic growth but it also facescalls for reform to keep up with high standards.  

Last year, nearly 13 million foreign visitors came to ourshores, earning the country more than 500 trillion VND (22 billion USD). That’sup 30 percent and 20 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Over the last decade, the number of international visitors toVietnam has tripled while revenue has increased by nine times.

Vietnam’s tourism ranked sixth in the top 10 fastest growingtourism destinations globally and was crowned the best performer in Asia in2017. The industry last year contributed 7.5 percent to the nation’s GDP.

With such impressive achievements, tourism has beenidentified a key economic sector by 2020. It can help boost the development ofother sectors including construction, real estate, retail, education and jobopportunities

The nation hopes to welcome 17-20 million foreign arrivalsand 82 million domestic tourists by 2020. Tourism revenue is expected to reach 35billion USD, contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP by then, and theindustry may create four million jobs, including 1.6 million direct jobs.

Tourism is forecast to maintain strongdevelopment in the next few years thanks to the Government’s support policies,determination of provincial authorities and dynamic development of bothbusinesses and communities.

However, such rapid expansion is exposing many challenges andif the industry cannot be restructured to break bottlenecks it could be beatenby overdevelopment.

“Rapid increase in the number of visitors to Vietnam in theshort term is putting the industry under great pressure of transportinfrastructure, human resources and destination management capacity,” said NguyenQuy Phuong, Director of Travel Management Department under the Vietnam NationalAdministration of Tourism.

Phuong said infrastructure deficiencies, particularly overloadedairports, will likely make tourists worn out due to long waiting while the lackof adequate human resource and public management capacity in destinations willaffect service quality.

In reality, airports in major cities such as Hanoi, HCM City,Hue and Da Nang, are facing the overload trouble.

Half of the people who visited from overseas last year flewinto Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City. It was built toaccommodate 25 million passengers per year, but in 2016, 32 million camethrough its doors.

According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 ofthe World Economic Forum, Vietnam’s tourist service infrastructure ranked 113thout of 136 economies, airport infrastructure 61st, ground traffic 71st, ITplatform 80th, clean and safe environment 82nd and international openness(mainly visas) 73rd.

“Urgent attention should be paid to upgrade of transportinfrastructure, including seaports in the context of increasing demand forcruise tourism, as well as improvements in visa and immigration procedures,” Phuongsaid.

Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association,also stressed the need to create a greater experience for visitors,highlighting the problems with visas.

Vietnam has granted visa waivers for visitors from 24countries while applying electronic visa to citizens of 46 countries. However,according to Binh, these numbers are still feeble compared with Thailand whichawards free-visa for tourists of 67 countries and Indonesia which waives visafor citizens of 169 countries and territories.

Tourism development also requires inter-regionalcoordination. Vietnam has developed several successful regional tourism brandssuch as the connection of the eight Northwestern provinces and cluster of thethree central provinces (Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam).

The Government is also urged to improve the businessenvironment to ensure the deep participation of private businesses andcommunity in the national tourism development strategy.

Vietnam hopes for around 16 million foreign visitors, 80million domestic arrivals and 620 trillion VND in total tourism revenue in2018. These are considered achievable goals but collective efforts amongmanagement agencies, businesses, communities and professional organisations areneeded to ensure sustainable development in the future.-VNA