Reasons why Vietnam's tourism development capacity among world’s best

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's tourism is proof of the country's capacity to overcome 'adversities' to reach the top, despite the economic struggles of the past two years.

According to a report recently released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Vietnam moved up eight places on the 2021 Tourism and Travel (T&T) Development Index (TTDI).

The country experienced the greatest score improvement, rising by 4.7% to leap from the 60th to the 52nd on the overall index.

Indonesia and Saudi Arabia also had great improvements in rank, with an increase of 3.4% to the 32nd place and 2.3% to the 33rd place, respectively, the report said.

Vietnam’s tourism has six indicators topping the world

The WEF report shows that Vietnam’s improved rankings have resulted from its achievements in COVID-19 prevention, measures of safe and flexible adaptation to the pandemic, and continuous efforts to develop safe tourism.

According to WEF experts, compared to other countries in the region, Vietnam did much better than other famous destinations such as Thailand ranking the 36th place (down one place), Malaysia at the 38th place (down nine places), and the Philippines at the 75th place (down two places).

The TTDI consists of five sub-indexes (used for presentation and categorisation purposes only), 17 pillars and 112 individual indicators, which focus on highlighting the sector’s role in broader economic and social development.

Among these 17 pillar indicators, Vietnam's tourism has six rankings among the world's leading (rank 1-35), including price competitiveness (ranking 15th in the world); natural resources (24th); cultural resources (25th); air transport infrastructure (27th); non-leisure resources (29th); and safety and security (33rd).

It can be said that this is breakthrough progress. In 2019 Vietnam had only three indicators classified into this group: price competitiveness, natural resources and cultural resources.

In addition, Vietnam also has seven pillar indicators ranked in the medium and high group (rank 36-70), including business environment (42nd); human resources and labour market (49th); ground and port infrastructure (50th); information and communication technology (ICT) readiness (54th); socio-economic resilience and conditions (61st); travel and tourism demand pressure and impact (66th); and international openness (69th).

The indicators that reported the highest jumps were business environment (30 places); human resources and labour market (27 places); price competitiveness (20 places); safety and security (16 places); and ground and port infrastructure (15 places).

These achievements helped Vietnam jump eight places on the 2019 ranking, entering the top 3 most improved in the world.

Weaknesses remain

However, Vietnam's tourism still has some indicators that reported decreases compared to 2019, including ICT readiness (down two); tourism service infrastructure (one); prioritisation of travel and tourism (three); and environmental sustainability (two).

Its four lowest-ranked indicators are health and hygiene (73rd place), tourism service infrastructure (86th), prioritisation of travel and tourism (87th), and environmental sustainability (94th).

There are also limitations to Vietnam's tourism through the World Economic Forum’s reports, in which an important indicator is that prioritisation of travel and tourism is still ranked low.

To address these shortcomings, leaders of the tourism industry have quickly carried out solutions to focus on speeding up the post-pandemic recovery and development of the green economy.

Nguyen Trung Khanh, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that in the coming time, to attract more international tourists, especially to welcome the peak season of international tourism from September onwards, the sector will focus on stepping up communications and promotion at key markets, prepare to organise international tourism fairs and participate in those abroad, and continue facilitating entry and exit procedures and visas for key markets.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), foreign arrivals to Vietnam jumped 70.6% month-on-month in May, following the removal of travel restrictions and over two weeks of the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) competitions.

The May figure was 12.8 times higher than that of the same month last year, the GSO said.

The number of foreign visitors rose 4.5-fold year-on-year in the first five months of 2022, but was still 95% lower than the same pre-pandemic period of 2019./.