Chinese travelers on Hon Mun Island

The good news about the sharp increase has been overshadowed by the decrease in foreign travelers from traditional markets. The number of travelers from Western Europe and North America has dropped by 20-30 percent.

A local newspaper reported that some hotels in Nha Trang City now refuse guests as hotel rooms all have been sold to Chinese travelers. 

Meanwhile, Tran Son Hai, deputy chair of Khanh Hoa province, expressed his concern over the staff cut at many hotels in the locality.

As hotels can easily find Chinese guests, they have cut the labor force and sales and marketing costs. 

Experienced hoteliers all said that in the tourism industry, sales and marketing divisions play a very important role. The divisions are not only in charge of selling products, but also updating market information and learning about travelers’ tastes.

The hotels in Nha Trang think they don’t need marketing officers as hotel rooms have been fully booked by Chinese. However, they have been warned that they will meet problems in the long term if they don’t have professional marketing officers.

Amid the increasingly heavy reliance on the Chinese market, director of the Khanh Hoa provincial Tourism Department Tran Viet Trung, advised hotels to reserve 15 percent of hotel rooms to receive separate guests. He said if hotels sell 100 percent of rooms to Chinese travelers, they will not have rooms to attract potential travelers who have high spending levels.

Le Van Son, CEO of Liberty Hotel, noted that the infrastructure in Khanh Hoa has become overloaded, while the tourism environment has been affected because of the massive arrivals of Chinese travelers.

Some analysts have urged restriction of the number of Chinese travelers to ease the burden on infrastructure. Others believe that China is a vast market which Vietnam needs to exploit.

“We can collect billions of dollars from Chinese travelers each year. Why refuse them?” said Luong Hoai Nam, an aviation & tourism expert.

He said that despite some problems, with 135 Chinese outbound tourists a year who spend $261 billion a year, Chinese travelers are welcomed all over the world.

Vietnam has been advised to learn from Thailand how to deal with Chinese travelers. It settled the problem after measures were applied by state and private organizations.

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Mai Chi