Vietnam loses billions of dollars as it ignores recreational tourism industry
Famous entertainment complexes around the world are all big moneymakers for host countries, but recreational tourism has not been given the attention it deserves in Vietnam.
Famous for many beautiful landscapes, Vietnam’s revenue from tourism is far below that of other regional countries.
One of the reasons, according to experts, is the lack of tourism products to entertain travelers. Vietnam misses opportunities to earn billions of dollars from travelers because it has no big entertainment complex for them to play in.US$3 billion a year missed
A recent survey conducted by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) found that other South East Asian countries are more professional than Vietnam in attracting tourists.
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Thailand’s tourism can bring US$50 billion a year. It plans to earn US$64 billion in 2016, and Malaysia US$35 billion.
Singapore earns US$16 billion from tourism, while Vietnam earned US$15 billion only in 2015.
Also according to VNAT, the average spending of one traveler in Vietnam is US$107 a day, much lower than in Thailand - US$160.
This is because Thailand offers a lot of products and entertainment services to travelers to use.
If Vietnam had 7.5 million travelers like Thailand, Vietnam would be able to earn US$3.2 billion more from travelers, which is nearly equal to Thailand’s.
The well-known entertainment complexes in the world are all big money makers for their host countries, such as Genting in Malaysia and Pattaya in Thailand.
According to the chair of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, the opportunities to invest in the entertainment/tourism real estate are very promising.
At present, investors are mostly developing projects on accommodation. Meanwhile, a resort complex needs to satisfy travelers’ demands for shopping and entertainment as well.
“We still don’t have large-scale entertainment complexes because Vietnamese investors remain unprofessional and financially incapable to develop such projects. Therefore, the opportunities are very big,” he said.
Pham Sy Liem, former Deputy Minister of Construction, also commented that most of the resort complexes in Vietnam lack items for entertainment.
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) quoted sources as reporting that a big real estate group is planning to build a tourism-resort-entertainment complex in central Danang City, and is expected to be the largest project of this kind in the central region.
