Vietnam master plan to optimize sea, island tourism resources

Vietnam's tourism sector will orient itself towards optimizing sea and island resources to develop products that can compete with regional countries, particularly in beach resorts, marine eco-tourism, and cruise tourism.

The orientation is set in a tourism master plan for the 2021-2030 period, with vision until 2045, that was approved Thursday by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha.

Under the new plan, the country will develop high-end beach resort hubs with strong brands in the international market.

Vietnam will also promote regional cultural values as a foundation for building tourism products associated with its heritages, festivals, landscapes, lifestyles and cuisine.

It will also develop eco-tourism products based on the nation’s natural resources, especially in terms of world biosphere reserves, national parks, nature reserves and marine reserves.

Attention will be paid to diversifying tourism products in line with new trends including wellness tourism, agri-tourism, sports tourism, adventure tourism, MICE tourism, educational tourism; cruise tourism and industrial tourism.

The master plan emphasizes the aim to turn tourism into a truly spearhead economic sector with green growth by 2030. It targets 25-28 million international arrivals and 130 million domestic tourists by 2025.

By 2030, the number of international tourists is hoped to reach 35 million, an annual increase of 13-15%; while that of domestic tourists would go up to 160 million, a 4-5% annual increase.

Tourism is expected to directly contribute 8-9% and 13-14% of GDP by 2025 and 2030, respectively. The master plan envisages the tourism sector creating about 6.3 million jobs, including 2.1 million direct jobs by 2025 and 10.5 million jobs, including 3.5 million direct ones, by 2030.

Vietnam has been working particularly hard to recover and sustain the growth of domestic tourists in the 2021-2025 five-year period. It has also been looking to tap the high-spending, longer-staying tourism segment.

In the same period, efforts are also being made to revive traditional markets and attract emerging ones like India and Middle Eastern countries.

In the next five years, 2026-2030, it will intensify efforts to boost sports and adventure tourism; and to maintain and expand traditional markets in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, Russia, Eastern Europe and Oceania. Diversifying markets to increase the proportion of high-spending travellers will be a special focus during this period.

By 2045, the master plan eyes 70 million international arrivals, about VND7,300 trillion ($28.68 billion) in tourism revenue, and the sector accounting for 17-18% of the nation’s GDP.

This would make Vietnam an outstanding destination in the world and one of the countries with the strongest tourism development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Vietnam recorded 7.6 million international arrivals from January-May, up 64.9% year-on-year. The figure exceeded the same period of pre-pandemic 2019 by 3.9%.

The country targets 18 million international visitors in 2024, equal to the 2019 pre-pandemic level. It was 12.6 million in all of 2023, up 240% year-on-year, the General Statistics Office reported.