Travel firms see negative signs from Chinese market

The number of Chinese travelers to Vietnam has been decreasing after a long period of hot development, thus causing worries to travel firms.
China has always been one of the biggest markets for Vietnamese travel firms which provides ¼ of the total number of foreign tourists to Vietnam. Therefore, the information that the number of Chinese travelers to Vietnam in the first eight months of 2012 decreased by 9.7 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year has caught the special attention from the public.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), 894,000 Chinese travelers came to Vietnam in the first eight months of the year, which was much lower than the 48 percent growth rate obtained in the first eight months of 2011 in comparison with the same period of 2010.
In 2011, Vietnam received 1.4 million Chinese travelers, an increase of 56.5 percent in comparison with one year ago.
The reports by some international travel firms have also shown the same situation. Travelink, which is believed to have advantages in exploiting Chinese-speaking markets, has reported the sharp fall of 30 percent in the number of travelers.
The firm now occasionally receives small groups of travelers. Some partners have booked tours for the upcoming tourist season. However, the travel firm does not put a high hope on the recovery of the market.
“Some partners have booked some more tours for the year end, but they may cancel tours in the last minute, like they have been doing since the beginning of the year,” said Tu Quy Thanh, Travelink’s Director.
“The Chinese partners also have tours to offer, but they cannot attract the attention of travelers,” he added.
Cao Tri Dung, Director of Vitours Da Nang, has also confirmed that the number of Chinese travelers has fallen dramatically. In 2011, the firm served 100,000 Chinese travelers, while there are few this year.
Travel firms have blamed the decreases on the economic difficulties, which have forced people to cut down expenses on tourism.
However, analysts say the main reason behind this is that Chinese travel firms now refuse to cooperate with Vietnamese travelers. After a long period of cooperation, Chinese travel firms have decided to take all the steps from A to Z.
“Previously, we received a lot of travelers coming in chartered aircraft. However, Chinese travel firms now book hotel rooms themselves, arrange transport services and take other steps,” Dung of Vitours said, adding that Vietnamese travel firms have lost customers, while the State fails to collect tax.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said Vietnam’s tourism now strives to attract the tourists who spend much during their trips, instead of trying to attract many tourists who have low spending levels.
These travelers mostly come from the northern land border gates. The travelers only have to pay one million dong for a tour which lasts three days and two nights. VNAT has affirmed that the tightening of the control over the travelers coming across the border gates has led to the decrease of Chinese travelers.
Reports say some 30 percent of Chinese travelers come to Vietnam by land, 58 percent by air, while the remaining by sea. The sharp falls have been seen not only in the number of tourists by land, but by air as well due to the current economic difficulties.
However, Nguyen Quy Phuong, Director of the Travel Department of VNAT, has admitted that it is really very difficult to attract the travelers with high spending levels. However, VNAT still considers China an important market and Vietnam needs to attract high payers from the market.