VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has seven provinces bordering China, with more than 1,350 km border. As more Chinese travel abroad, the country has a golden opportunity to make money.

Chinese tourists in Nha Trang City. Photo: Zing

According to China's People Daily, 97.3 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2013, up 16.8% over the previous year. At this rate, it is likely that this year the milestone of 100 million Chinese traveling overseas will be broken.

This result was achieved because the Chinese economy has maintained a high growth rate for more than three decades, increasing the income of Chinese. The middle class is growing, and spending is also increasing, including expenses for overseas travel.

According to statistics, of the world's 1 billion travelers, 200 million are Chinese. In 2015, Chinese spent $183 billion for tourism shopping. Most of the Chinese tourists belong to the newly-emerging middle class, who are easygoing, like gambling, like shopping, and spend a lot.

Vietnam has many opportunities to benefit from this trend. According to the Saigon Economic Times, in 2013, more than 1.9 million Chinese tourists went to Vietnam, up 33.5% over the previous year. China ranked No. 1 in the ranking of countries with tourists to Vietnam. Assuming average spending per Chinese tourist is $75, in 2012 Vietnam earned more than $142.5 million from Chinese visitors. And now that number has increased by several times.

Vietnam has 7 provinces bordering China, with more than 1,350 km common border. Mong Cai international border gate in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province is one of the places where most  Chinese tourists pass to enter Vietnam. Every day about 2,000-3,000 Chinese go to Vietnam for travel, work and business.

However, it is a big problem that Vietnam’s tourism industry is incapable of serving more Chinese tourists. Moreover, it is difficult to make money from Chinese people as Chinese tourists are known for being choosy and picky. Chinese tourists are also known for sometimes bad behavior and habits such as spitting and throwing rubbish at public places, speaking loudly, etc. 

In fact, the rocketing number of Chinese tourists coming to Vietnam in the first half of 2016 put pressure on the tourism industry. 

The latest report of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) shows more than 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited Vietnam in this period, making up roughly a quarter of the total international tourists visiting.

Chinese visitor growth scored more than 47.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

“The thing is that Vietnam tourism industry’s capabilities in terms of both personnel and services failed to adapt to sudden growth of Chinese tourists. Worse still, Chinese visitors do not spread evenly across the country but only focus on some tourism sites, particularly Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa Province and Da Nang,” said VNAT head Nguyen Van Tuan.

Economist Tran Du Lich said that Vietnam did not well prepare to welcome Chinese tourists.

He said on average, each year about 250 million Chinese people travel around the world. Several hundred thousand of Chinese tourists to Nha Trang or Da Nang is an insignificant amount.

Many countries have predicted this trend so they have taken initiative to welcome Chinese tourists. For example, in Thailand, Chinese tourists are directed to Pattaya while Phuket targets Western European tourists. 

Lich said Da Nang and Nha Trang complained of the lack of tour guides who can speak Chinese and condemned violations of Chinese tour guides. However, they should blame themselves first because without the collusion of local firms and people, Chinese tour guides would have not had a chance to work illegally in Vietnam, he said.

He said China is a large and potential market so Vietnam tourism must explore this market through appropriate policies.

Pha Le