Need to Raise Tourism Development Awareness among Travel Companies

Seasonal tourism is becoming a popular trend and practice in Vietnam. To some extent, bad management and pricing will undermine the professionalism of the Vietnamese tourism sector. Mr Pham Tien Dung, General Secretary of the Hanoi Travel Club, shared solutions to seasonal tourism weaknesses.

 

The tourism industry is typically affected by seasonal factors. In Vietnam, seasonal factors include weather, travel trends and consumer psychology. These significantly affect the tourism industry, especially domestic travel. Weather-driven tourism booms in northern and central Vietnam from April to September, with peak in July and August.

 

Besides, many festivals are organised in the first months of the lunar year and many people travel during this period.

 

Vietnam does not have winter holidays while social and business organisations have to complete annual targets in the last months. As students are off nearly three months for summer holidays, tourism peaks this period of time. As a season does not last long, tour operators and service suppliers tend to do seasonal business.

 

Generally, seasonal business has a huge influence on the tourism industry in general and the image of a tourist site in particular. Simple services plus high prices, lack of professionalism, and negligence of tourism workers are major reasons for one-off arrivals.

 

Some provinces and cities only rely on natural endowments like pleasant climate and beautiful beaches, not investing in new attractions and advanced services. Taking tourism programmes to Thanh Hoa or Nghe An as example, 90 percent of their programmes are popular beaches and resorts like Sam Son and Cua Lo. New sea tourist sites haven’t received investment for years, including Van Don - Quan Lan, Xuan Thanh, Tinh Gia, Son Tra and Cu Lao Cham.

 

In addition, overloading of tourist services on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays is a common phenomenon in most tourist areas, while other days are almost empty. Although tour companies, hotels and restaurants offer attractive discounts and bonuses for weekdays, travellers are still keen on weekend holidays.

 

Hotels and restaurants unexpectedly hike service prices given rising costs. Many travel companies have to accept the breach of contracts as new prices are unbearable for tourists.

 

Beach hotels in the north and northern central regions have closed their facilities from August to April. Seasonal travel services are abundant in peak times. Service providers are free to hike charges during festivals, but they stop their business when these festivals are over.

 

Seasonal tourism companies also recruit temporary workers for peak periods. Vietnamese tourist guides are not good enough at foreign languages to scout foreign visitors or follow outbound tours in foreign nations. They have to find other jobs when the season is over.

 

Travellers need to change their habits, set up long-term travel plans, and differentiate their travel purposes. They should avoid peak seasons if they can.

 

Central and local governments should offer more incentives to entice investors to build infrastructure, hotels and restaurants to boost their capacity for peak seasons, improve the quality of tourism services in primary attractions and serve tourists throughout the year.

 

They should introduce tourist forms like ecological tourism, cultural discovery, stay home or travel products to attract tourists in different times in the year. In the long term, the State must research and create two tourism seasons in one year.