Increasing tourism competitiveness, aiming to welcome 25 million international visitors

By 2025, Vietnam tourism aims to make a breakthrough in attracting international visitors with 25 million arrivals.

By 2025, Vietnam tourism aims to make a breakthrough in attracting international visitors with 25 million arrivals.

To ensure the successful implementation of this goal, experts and tourism businesses believe that specific action solutions are needed regarding markets, products, promotion and linking travel agencies with markets and suppliers to increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism.

Policy solutions

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong assessed that the target of welcoming 25 million international visitors is a challenging number for Vietnam tourism. Facing new opportunities and chances in the last months of the year, it requires determination and breakthrough efforts of the entire industry, localities and business community participating in tourism activities. In particular, the tourism industry must rely on the requirement of tourism growth in both quantity and quality to ensure the goal of sustainable development.

Statistics show that from 2019 to now, international visitors to Vietnam in the last 6 months of the year are often higher than in the first 6 months of the year, so the last months of 2025 are an important time to strengthen solutions on policy mechanisms, promotion, and Vietnamese tourism products. These include solutions to connect airlines and ships, apply technology in travel businesses, promote product sales on digital platforms, promote diverse combo links, etc.

Currently, there are many breakthrough policies that are having a comprehensive impact on tourism activities, becoming the main driving force for the development and transformation of the industry, showing that Vietnam attaches great importance to opening up to international integration, creating all favorable conditions for foreigners to come to Vietnam. Specifically, Vietnam creates especially favorable conditions in terms of visas, entry and exit for foreigners for the purpose of working, investing, market exploration and tourism...

Deputy Minister Ho An Phong emphasized that these policy mechanisms are a strong step towards the goal of making Vietnam a more convenient, friendly and accessible destination for global tourists. This also demonstrates the Government 's interest and determination in its role as a creator, and is the basis for mobilizing the participation of relevant ministries, localities, agencies and organizations in efforts to promote international tourist attraction. However, these policy mechanisms also pose many challenges to the tourism industry such as the requirement to restructure tourism products after the merger; forming a smart tourism ecosystem, renewing the tourism map; innovating tourism promotion work... as well as fierce competition from the very open and dynamic policies of countries in the region.

To achieve the goal of welcoming 25 million international visitors, Mr. Ha Van Sieu - Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) pointed out that it is necessary to promote the combined strength of all relevant parties, especially the proactive, creative and leading role of tourism and travel businesses. Because tourism and travel businesses play a pivotal role in developing segmentation and grouping strategies that focus on growth quality; promoting favorable institutional and policy conditions to take action to promote visitor growth.

“In particular, the Vietnamese tourism industry is oriented towards quality growth, which is mainly reflected in two indicators: increasing the number of days of stay and increasing maximum spending of visitors. In addition, improving the quality of products and services, meeting the increasing needs of tourists and bringing long-term benefits to the community and the environment, the tourism products of tourism and travel businesses must focus on specificity, diversity, identity, creativity and intelligence,” Mr. Ha Van Sieu added.

Key market positioning

Tourists gather in the Back Beach area, Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City is a leading tourist destination in Vietnam, attracting a variety of international visitors thanks to its modernity, dynamism and attractive cuisine. Businesses in the City have been making practical contributions to removing bottlenecks, attracting international visitors from many markets to help the whole country achieve its tourism goals in 2025.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Group, said that the India - Middle East markets are emerging markets but have high spending levels and strong visitor growth. The advantage of these two markets is that there is still a lot of room, so they need to be positioned as key markets for investment, development and exploitation of international visitors. Along with that, it is necessary to resolve some bottlenecks between Vietnam and the India - Middle East market, including: fierce competition with tourism in Thailand and Singapore; difficulties in connecting air routes between Vietnam and the India - Middle East market; visas are not "open" or exempted for Indian visitors to Vietnam...

In the past, tourism products serving the Indian - Middle Eastern market have not met cultural factors, especially religious (Hala). The Indian - Middle Eastern market, with most visitors having the need to buy branded goods and consume high quality products, requires night tourism products and services. In addition, the tourism promotion program needs the cooperation of the state and the private sector, with effective programs, especially Vietnamese management agencies abroad.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia regions with leading tourist sources such as China, Korea, Taiwan (China), or ASEAN countries account for the largest proportion of international visitors to Vietnam tourism today. Therefore, this region is also the focus for the Vietnamese tourism industry to accelerate exploitation in the coming time, especially towards the milestone of 25 million international visitors. However, many tourism and travel businesses say that, for the Northeast Asian market, the current entry procedures in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, on average, take from 1 to 1.5 hours, which is very slow. Therefore, the tourism industry must soon have a policy mechanism to promote the re-routing of entry and exit procedures, prioritizing MICE tourists, group tourists, etc. so that Vietnam can compete with other markets in the region.

Also related to entry procedures, Ms. Hoang Thi Lien, General Director of F5 Travel Company, suggested that there should be a solution to simplify entry procedures for tourists, especially Taiwanese (China) tourists. To attract Chinese tourists, it is necessary to take advantage of land border gates, develop tourism with passports or self-driving car tourism (caravan), in addition to cruise tourism, charter flights, etc.

Recently, digital travel platform Agoda (Agoda) announced the list of top mountain and small town destinations in Asia, Sapa of Vietnam rose to 6th place in the continent, affirming its growing appeal on the international tourism map. Data from Agoda also revealed that the number of searches for Sapa increased by 21%, proving the growing appeal of this destination. Mr. Vu Ngoc Lam, Country Director of Agoda in Vietnam shared that Sapa's presence in the Asian rankings reflects the unique landscape and diverse heritage of Vietnam that is increasingly conquering tourists. From vast terraced fields, trekking routes in the mountains and forests to unique traditional cultures that meet the needs of tourists looking for unique and unique experiences.

Some experts say that localities and tourism businesses must be the ones to open the door to opportunities with practical and timely actions to turn policies on paper into socio-economic results, helping Vietnam tourism to make a breakthrough in 2025. In particular, businesses need to proactively learn and grasp the advantages of each policy and adjust their business models accordingly.

Typically, in terms of infrastructure investment policies, tourism and travel businesses can adjust tour itineraries and open new routes based on the completion of transport infrastructure projects and international traffic intersections (Long Thanh airport, North-South expressway, new international airports). Or tourism and travel businesses focus on investing in suitable means of transport (limousine, high-speed train) to exploit these routes.

As for digital transformation policies, tourism and travel businesses flexibly approach and apply national digital transformation policies to invest in digital infrastructure, develop new products, and apply augmented reality (AR) technology. Based on the application of technology, tourism and travel businesses create authentic experiences, promote destinations, design experiential itineraries, and provide personalized services to tourists.

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Source: https://baolaocai.vn/tang-suc-canh-tranh-cua-du-lich-huong-den-don-25-trieu-luot-khach-quoc-te-post881768.html