VietNamNet Bridge – Travel firms keep doubtful with the figures of foreign and domestic travelers to Vietnam in 2012, because they are “abnormally high” in the context of the global economic crisis.
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The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has declared a successful
year 2012 for the tourism industry with 6.7 million inbound tourists, 32 million
domestic travelers and the total revenue of VND160 trillion dong. The
achievements have far exceeded the targets set earlier this year.
Dai doan ket newspaper has cited a report of VNAT as reporting that the number
of foreign travelers to Vietnam increased by 11 percent in 2012, especially from
Russia (71.5 percent), Finland (43 percent), South Korea (31 percent), Malaysia
(28 percent) and Laos (27 percent). The number of domestic travelers also
increased by 8.3 percent, thus helping increase the total revenue from tourism
activities to 23 percent.
The figures provided by the General Statistics Office show a little difference,
with the number of travelers increasing by 9.5 percent only. However, this still
showed that Vietnam received a record high number of foreign travelers to the
country in 2012.
USTOA, the US tourism association, has also reported that Vietnam is the second
choice among the newly emerging destinations for international tourists, which
showed the strong potentials of the Vietnam’s tourism industry.
Meanwhile, travel firms, which all affirmed that they have experienced a very
difficult year, said that the high figures prove to be unreliable.
Thanh nien, which conducted a survey on 20 international travel firms, has found
out that the number of clients of the travel firms decreased sharply in 2012,
while the profit per traveler also dropped dramatically. The travel firms
believe that the figures released by VNAT were “fabricated.”
In Hanoi, Net dep Dong Duong (Indochina charm) travel firm, has relocated from
the head office on an advantageous position in the central area to another
office building, which has the premises rent lower by one third, in order to
stop loss. 30 percent of the firm’s staff has been laid off, while the firm is
reconsidering the plan to attend a foreign trade fair.
The manager said that the firm has to cut down expenses after the number of
German and French tourists, who usually book 12-14 day tours and stay at 3-4
star hotels, has decreased dramatically, thus leading to the sharp fall of 25
percent in the number of foreign travelers in 2012.
Prior to that, the travel firm witnessed the 20 percent decline in the number of
tourists in 2011.
Nguyen Kien Cuong, Director of Tuan Minh Trade and Tourism Company, which
specializes in carrying European and Japanese travelers, complained that the
number of orders from 10 international travel firms in the high season in
October 2012 - April 2013 is estimated to decrease by 40 percent.
According to Dr. Pham Trung Luong from the Tourism Development Institute, the
numbers of foreigners entering Vietnam have been provided by the authorities at
border gates, while it is very difficult to tell the difference between the
people entering Vietnam to travel, or for other purposes.
Especially, the travelers going to Vietnam to visit their relatives have also
been counted as tourists. However, in fact, not all of them spend money on
tourism.
In some cases, the estimated incomes from foreign travelers have been counted
twice. If foreign travelers come to Vietnam by air, VNAT would estimate the
income to receive from the travelers, which include transport, trade,
electricity and water. Meanwhile, the transport industry also enters into
accounts the receipts from the travelers for transport services.
Compiled by C. V