10:39:25 AM | 8/4/2026
Travel planning may be what makes every holiday possible, but Klook's new research surveying 2,725 travellers across 10 markets shows travel planning as one of the least appreciated tasks. Vietnam feels this more than most.
The Thankless Task
Among ten everyday favours people do for others, from carrying heavy bags to opening doors, travel planning ranked as the #1 least-thanked task in Vietnam.
Non-planners believe that organising a week-long group trip takes fewer than 10 hours. In reality, more than 7 in 10 planners insisted that they spend more than 10 hours organising a single trip. In fact, 48.4% spend up to 20 hours and 26.4% spend up to, and even more, than 40 hours!
Because planning a trip is not a single task. It is many tasks disguised as one.
An Actual Job
The travel planner is the group's operations manager, customer service desk, and crisis hotline, all rolled into one.
The biggest source of stress for Vietnamese planners is managing human logistics. Their top stressors include managing budgets (60.4%), coordinating schedules (50.9%), and getting responses from others (34.0%).
Beyond managing budgets and schedules, Vietnamese planners also shoulder the emotional labour of the trip: 67.3% say their top skill is choosing options that minimise group drama, prevent conflict, and keep everyone happy.
While everyone else is relaxing, the planner is still on duty. More than half of Vietnamese planners check their phones six or more times a day during the trip to manage bookings, directions, and logistics.
The Cost of The Job
While many travellers outsource decision-making with an “I'm happy with anything”, it is the planner who remains accountable. And the blame does not add up: far more planners say they get blamed than non-planners admit to blaming them.
The top three complaints are: “I could've planned this better.” (61.0%); “That's out of my budget.” (52.8%); “Why didn't we do this instead?” (55.3%)
In fact, if being a planner looks, feels, and operates like a job, how much should they get paid for it?
More than 7 in 10 Vietnamese planners believe they deserve to be paid US$50 or more per hour for their efforts. Given that most Vietnamese planners spend between 10 to 20 hours organising a week-long group trip, that amounts to as much as US$1,000 or more in unpaid labour.
And that is before the holiday has even begun.
How Can We Pay Them Back?
Planners keep planning because someone has to turn “we should go somewhere” into “remember that amazing trip?”
Some 71.7% of Vietnamese planners say the trip only makes it out of the group chat because of them, while 77.4% believe the group would not travel as well without a planner.
It is time to give Vietnam's travel planners the recognition they deserve.
After spending hours coordinating schedules, managing budgets (and egos), solving problems before anyone notices them, and taking the blame when things go wrong, it is perhaps no surprise that more than 8 in 10 Vietnamese travel planners believe they deserve more recognition for everything they do.
Behind every memorable holiday is someone investing their time, energy, and mental effort so everyone else can just show up.
It is time we give our travel planners the appreciation they deserve, and thank the friend or family member who makes the holiday possible.
Global Data Point Bank
Planning personas: 41.2% of travel planners are “Optimisers” (best deals, routes, efficiency) versus 16.7% “Architects” (detailed itineraries and structure) — more than double.
Why non-planners opt out: 33.1% of non-planners say the main reason they don't plan is simply that someone else would do it.
Bigger than a work week: 52.5% of planners agree that planning a trip takes more time than their entire work week.
A complicated mix of feelings: 44.2% find planning stressful — yet 74.1% feel thrilled, 70.6% feel accomplished, 66.9% feel emotionally attached to their itinerary, and 55.6% say being the planner is basically their whole personality.
“I'm happy with anything”: 33.0% of planners have had a travel companion shrug off decisions with “I'm happy with anything.”
By Vietnam Business Forum
