For many years, the Vietnam Tourism Association has been warning that heavy reliance on the Chinese market would bring consequences.

More than 32 percent of total foreign travelers to Vietnam are Chinese.

Many tourism sites and travel firms, focusing on attracting and serving Chinese travelers, are experiencing hardships as the number of Chinese travelers has dropped dramatically because of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, other travel firms bear smaller impact in the epidemic as they still receive the travelers from Europe, the US, Australia, India and Thailand.

Many tourism sites and travel firms, focusing on attracting and serving Chinese travelers, are experiencing hardships as the number of Chinese travelers has dropped dramatically because of Covid-19.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Toan, director of Images Travel, 10 percent of travelers have canceled tours, but the situation is not too bad for the company.

Images Travel is preparing to serve 50 tours in the time to come with 80 percent of travelers from France. In February 2020, the firm received more than 1,000 European travelers.

Fiditour received 10 groups of European travelers, about 30-80 travelers for each group, in February. Viking said Indonesian travelers still come to Vietnam. Tan Hong said it continues to serve thousands of cruise travelers, mostly from the US, Europe, Australia and Canada as previously planned.

Analysts commented that Covid-19 once again shows the need of diversifying the markets.

Vietnam receives only hundreds of thousand of travelers from Australia, New Zealand and North America each year, a modest figure. Meanwhile, the Middle East also has potential.

Among the new markets that the analysts believe Vietnam should focus on, India proves to be very promising.

That is why Vietjet has opened five non-stop air routes from Vietnam to different destinations in India. The non-stop flights will bring Indian travelers to famous tourism sites in Vietnam.

A report showed that the number of Indian travelers to Vietnam in 2019 increased by 27 percent over the year before.

A representative of TST Tourist said the company began exploiting the Indian market four years ago and has gained encouraging results. The number of Indian travelers served by the firm in 2019 increased by 29 percent.

Vietnam has become a strong brand after weddings of Indian billionaires were successfully organized at Vietnam’s famous tourist sites, including Phu Quoc and Da Nang.

Nguyen Huu Tho, chair of the Vietnam Tourism Association, also commented that India, with 1.3 billion people, including a high number of millionaires, is a potential market. He said direct air routes and chartered flights will help bring Indian travelers to Vietnam.

Kim Chi 

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