Viet Nam is known for its beautiful scenery, including long coastlines and deep forests, and for its diversity of community-based tourism in villages. It also offers cultural and heritage tourism, and has great potential as a food tourism destination. In 2019, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Viet Nam greeted 18 million international tourists and earned VND 755 trillion (USD 32.8 billion) in tourism receipts, a direct contribution of 9.2% to GDP (VNTA, 2019). Viet Nam is open for international flights from almost every country. The four largest international markets by far are China, South Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei. This country note will examine Viet Nam’s approaches to these forms of tourism as well as the challenges it faces to become more attractive to tourists.
Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2023
Viet Nam
Source: OECD Development Centre based on data from UNWTO (2022), “Global and regional tourism performance” (database), UN World Tourism Organization, https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/global-and-regional-tourism-performance (accessed on 26 November, 2022) and WTTC (2022), “Vietnam 2022 Annual Research: key highlights”, https://wttc.org/DesktopModules/MVC/FactSheets/pdf/704/235_20220613171824_VietNam2022_.pdf.
Introduction
Current situation and policy challenges
Ecotourism
Viet Nam has approached ecotourism as a way to boost several activities. From tropical jungle hikes to green lodging and community-based tourism, the country offers a variety of options. Viet Nam is home to more than 13 200 species of plants and approximately 10 000 species of animals, including over many red-book species (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2022), living in national forests, biodiversity conservation areas and many other natural zones. Its development strategy for tourism to 2020 identified ecotourism as one of the driving forces for developing the industry (VNTA, 2012). However, financial and marketing support for companies that promote tourist sites has been weak, and this support has been approached on a national scale instead of targeting specific aspects of tourism. As a result, many ecotourism areas have been established, but they have not been managed well.
Challenges for the government and industry stakeholders include the need for better infrastructure and better links among stakeholders; a low level of participants and tourism literacy at the local level; and mass tourism in nature areas. The government needs to adopt a framework that will:
improve the tourism knowledge of local communities and tourism enterprises, e.g. via outreach programmes by local institutions
educate tourism and hospitality students on the management of ecotourism sites and increase local commitment to preserving nature
establish a comprehensive system identifying areas of focus for tourism, in partnership with tourism stakeholders
ensure responsible tourism to maintain the ecosystems of parks and villages, and ensure that treks do not disturb biodiversity.
Research will be needed, at the national and local levels, to develop understanding of the present ecological situation (Viet Nam suffers from significant data gaps in this area, Figure 5.5), identify which nature-based sites need new infrastructure, financial support, marketing efforts and improved business knowledge of tourism for locals.
Figure 5.5. Threatened species in Emerging Asia - Animalia
Note: Threatened Species Rate = (Vulnerable + Endangered + Critically Endangered)/(Total - Extinct - Extinct in the Wild). Data Deficiency Rate = Species Labelled “Data Deficient”/Total.
Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from the IUCN Red List.
Cultural and heritage tourism
Cultural and heritage tourism are regarded as core aspects of Viet Nam’s tourism development strategy, yet cultural and heritage sites are currently managed locally. For example, when requested, local residents hired by a tourism company will organise a cultural trip for tourists (VNTA, 2015). Many cultural performances and celebrations are very localised, while cultural events in cities and towns near tourist destinations are not sufficiently integrated for tourist consumption. There are considerable opportunities in this regard, and tourism companies have a key role to play.
As for heritage tourism, management is difficult because local residents often live on heritage sites, farming and building houses on the land. Moreover, local people are often not aware of the existing rules. Key stakeholders – and especially regulation, if enforced – could help to better synchronise tourism policies and management of the country’s heritage sites.
To update Viet Nam’s approach to cultural and heritage tourism, policy makers could work on new ways of ensuring that local communities benefit more and are more independent in doing business, not just relying on tourism companies. The lack of tourism knowledge among local businesses suggests that the government should focus more on tourism education – guiding local entrepreneurs, opening more programmes in schools and organising educational meetings for local people on how to avoid overtourism at their heritage sites.
Food tourism
Viet Nam is regarded as a prime tourist destination for food. The country offers a wide range of local cuisines in the cities and mountainous areas favoured by tourists. Tourism policies promoting local food still have a large room to improve, however. Encouraging and developing local foods as a tourism prospect could contribute to preserving traditional ways of making foods in local families and providing the country many opportunities to promote Viet Nam as a gastronomy destination.
Promoting local cuisines is important, but more research is needed to identify the roles and connections of stakeholders along the food value chain, from input (ingredients) to output (food ready to be served). Based on this research, the government should be able to co-operate with tourism companies and local communities to forge new policies supporting the development of food tourism (Yen, 2020). Tasting local food is one of the ways to allow visitors to learn more about local people as well as their history and culture, heritage, traditions and the ways that food is grown, prepared and shared.
References
Convention on Biological Diversity (2022), “Viet Nam – Main Details”, United Nations Environment Programme, access 25 November 2022, https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=vn.
IMF (2022), “World Economic Outlook Database” (accessed October 2022).
UNWTO (2022), “Global and regional tourism performance” (database), UN World Tourism Organization, https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/global-and-regional-tourism-performance (accessed on 26 November 2022).
VNTA (2019), Viet Nam Tourism Annual Report, Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, https://images.vietnamtourism.gov.vn/vn/dmdocuments/2020/E-BCTNDLVN_2019.pdf.
VNTA (2015), “Du lịch có trách nhiệm với Di sản văn hóa: Mối quan hệ cộng sinh” [“Responsible tourism with cultural heritage: A symbiotic relationship”], Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, https://vietnamtourism.gov.vn/esrt/default.aspx-portalid=1&tabid=464&itemid=762.htm.
WTTC (2022), “Vietnam 2022 Annual Research: key highlights”, https://wttc.org/DesktopModules/MVC/FactSheets/pdf/704/235_20220613171824_VietNam2022_.pdf.
Yen, D. (2020), “Phát triển bền vững du lịch ẩm thực Việt Nam: đâu là giải pháp?” [“Develop sustainable food tourism in Viet Nam: What are the solutions?”], https://destination-review.com/ud/.