VietNamNet Bridge – A majority of foreign visitors to Vietnam choose to stay at hotels of three to four-star ratings while domestic tourists favor two to three-star hotels as shown in Vietnam Annual Tourism Report 2014.

The pool area of a hotel in the central city of Danang. According to the Vietnam Annual Tourism Report 2014, 50.9% of 7.87 million international visitors to Vietnam last year stayed at hotels of three to four-star ratings - Photo: Dao Loan

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism released the report last Tuesday, which was prepared with technical assistance from the EU-funded Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Program, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The report is the first complete document produced in line with international standards to support the assessment of tourism’s socio-economic impacts.

The report showed 28.4% of 7.87 million international visitors to Vietnam last year stayed at three-star hotels, 22.5% chose 4-star hotels, and only 16.1% preferred 5-star hotels. The rest booked one to two-star hotels and hostels.

Hostels and guesthouses were favored by 24.92% of 38.5 million domestic tourists, followed by two-star hotels with 24.34% and three-star hotels with 22.46%. Only 3.06% of the domestic visitors selected four-star hotels and 0.51% favored five-star hotels.

Vietnam had had a total of 18,500 lodging establishments with 332,000 guest rooms as of December last year. The average room occupancy rate of three to five-star hotels was 57%. The northern region had more small lodging facilities than in the southern and central regions.

According to the report, room tariffs of hotels in Hanoi, HCMC and other tourism centers were stable last year. Room occupancy changed significantly at seaside hotels in tourist sites in the northern and north-central provinces such as Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Quang Binh and Thanh Hoa.

The performance of hotels in Vietnam depended much on international arrivals. From quarter two of 2014, room occupancy at hotels in border provinces including Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai, and Cao Bang dropped 20% year-on-year due to a sharp fall in Chinese-speaking tourists. Meanwhile, falls at hotels in Hanoi, Danang and Haiphong were from 5% to 10%.

A sharp plunge in Russian arrivals in quarter four of last year led to room occupancy decreases of 10-20% at hotels in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces and 5% at hotels in Danang.