Still Faced With Inflation and Fuel Price Growth

Vietnam is expected to face big problems of inflation in 2009. The government has also continually made many changes in the fuel price, causing it to fluctuate during the first half of 2009. Vietnamese people have tightened their purse strings and only spend money on the essentials, hindering travel and tourism. Therefore, all aspects of Vietnam tourism including arrivals and departures in the year 2009 have declined slightly compared with 2008.

H1n1 Epidemic Affects the Tourism Industry All Over the World

In 2009, Swine flu (H1N1),which started in Mexico and quickly spread all over the world mostly by means of tourism, caused a great deal of damage to the tourism industry, not only in Vietnam, but in every country in the world. Airports have started strict security checks whereby every tourist has to go through a temperature check before being able to board. People have also cut back on travelling for fear of catching H1N1, reducing the number of tourists.

More Policies To Attract Tourists

The government has implemented several initiatives to attract more tourists to Vietnam, such as hotels (mostly luxury hotels) and tourist agents all over the country offering lower prices. Some leading travel agencies such as SaigonTourist and Vietravel have reduced their prices by up to 30% for tours to major tourist destinations in Vietnam. Hotels and travel agencies have also increased the service quality such as room service, car rental, and airport transfers. Some provinces are chosen to host festivals like the sea festival at Nha Trang, fruits festival at Can Tho, and the Mekong festival. These festivals last a few days and there are a lot of activities like parades, concerts and exhibitions to attract more tourists. These are traditional festivals but they were previously on a small scale and celebrated only by locals. Since 2005, the government has made them into big events spanning several days, with a lot of activities to attract more tourists. Although they seemed to be fascinating for the tourists initially, the festivals just repeat themselves every year offering nothing new and many tourists feel that the festivals are becoming too commercial and have lost their spirit. This is the reason why the number of tourists drawn to these festivals is declining every year.