Vietnam targets 1 million Chinese visitors

Nguyen Van Tuan, general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) attributed the rise to a series of promotional campaigns run in major Chinese cities over the last two years. He said   China   was a key market for the country's tourism industry.   
      
According to VNAT, in the first six months of this year, 437,000 tourists from  China  visited   Vietnam  , 92.5 percent more than the same period last year.   
  
La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCM City Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the number of Chinese holidaymakers visiting the south of the country was rising by 25 percent annually.   
      
Travel firms have also reported significant growth in visitor numbers from   China  . Lien Bang Travelink said the number of tourists using the company's services had increased by 30 percent since the beginning of the year compared to the same period in 2009.   
     
Tu Quy Thanh, the company's director, said Chinese tourists previously used to spend three to four days primarily in the north of the country but that now they were fanning out and travelling to the central and southern regions.   

Thanh added that high-end travellers from   China   were now spending more money than their counterparts from the West.   
 
However, Thanh said that communication problems were a source of concern and that Vietnamese travel firms were finding it difficult to find Chinese partners.   
      
He also said that  Vietnam  could not compete with regional countries such as  Bangkok  or   Singapore   in terms of shopping malls or medical facilities. He also said that other countries such as  Indonesia , offered a greater array of cultural attractions, and that   Japan   was a better destination for luxury products.   
      
However, he said that  Hanoi , Ha Long Bay and   HCM   City   were holding their own in terms of cultural appeal and proving increasingly attractive to Chinese holidaymakers./.