VietNamNet Bridge – The local media recently reported that speaking at the National Assembly session on June 8, the Minister of Culture - Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh "sighed and wondered why Vietnam has many things that are “top of the world", but foreign tourists do not want to come".

Perhaps Vietnamese not only "sigh" but are also "confused" because statistics show the decline of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first half of this year.

But just recently, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) announced its survey results, with up to 94.09% of international visitors saying that Vietnam tourism is extremely good and good, and only 0.22% of them saying that Vietnam tourism is poor.

At the same time, information about tourism of neighboring countries may hurt the feelings of Vietnam’s tourism officials. Last year, Laos welcomed 3 million international visitors, equivalent to 50% of the population. Cambodia also had 4.5 million international visitors, equivalent to 30% of its population. Vietnam welcomed 7.9 million visitors, equivalent to 8.7% of the population.

A few small observations when traveling abroad can help us to answer the question why foreign visitors don’t come back to Vietnam.

In the countries with developed tourism industry, the whole country is linked together to serve tourists. On the highway, there is a stop-over for each a few dozen kilometers, where tourists can use toilet for free and buy food or souvenirs.

In Vietnam, many highways are built but there is no association with tourism. Traffic on the highway is in chaos, scaring foreign visitors. The lack of standardized stop-over and poor services on the road also leave a poor impression.

Recently, noticing the shortcomings of the visa procedures, the Government has jumped on the bandwagon, and the tourism sector has more or less changed. Hopefully, the tourism sector will continue to make break-through in many different stages.

But it is more important that the Vietnamese people everywhere, particularly those at tourist sites, practice good business culture by not charging high prices, not selling fake goods, caring for the environment and being friendly with tourists.

 Truong Nhi