Malaysia received 22 million foreign tourists in 2008 and expects to receive 23 million this year, despite the economic downturn, said Victor Wee, chairman of the Malaysia Tourism Association.
Foreign arrivals to Indonesia rose 8 percent in January year-on-year, 6.1 percent in April and 4.6 percent in July.
Meanwhile, foreign arrivals to Vietnam fell 17.7 percent to 2.48 million in the first eight months of 2009, with the number of tourists from key markets dropping by up to 35 percent, according to figures from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
The number has continued to slump every month – 17.7 percent in January, 22.2 percent in February, 28.6 percent in March, 25.7 percent in April and 17.8 percent in July.
Other countries that saw arrivals drop experienced far less of a reduction, as low as 4.5 percent in Singapore and 3 percent in China in July.
All countries were hit by the economic crisis. So why has Vietnam’s tourism sector, which employs more than 10 percent of the country’s workforce, been unable to manage as well as its neighbors’?
What did Malaysia do?
According to Victor Wee, the country did several things that would not be difficult for Vietnam to do: enhanced advertising, improved product quality, introduced new products, and enlarged its target market.
Many international musical programs attract thousands of visitors to Malaysia every year.
The Monsoon Cup sailboat race attract tourists in the rainy and windy seasons while Vietnam tourism operators accept the rainy season as “idle” time.
Malaysia also organizes cross-border tours with Indonesia, which Vietnam can do as well by cooperating with Laos and Cambodia to offer tours throughout Indochina.
Malaysia has offered homestay and eco-tours targeting young visitors from Singapore, South Korea and Japan while we just tried to attract German tourists because of a statistic that said they traveled the most.
For most countries in the region, their neighbors are the number one tourism customer: Malaysia is a VIP customer in Thailand, Indonesia is the same to Singapore and vice versa.
Vietnam considers China its number one supplier of tourists but most Chinese come just for commercial purposes in northern provinces.
We’ve got tourism strengths just like others in our region. The problem is that we are not determined enough to make use of those strengths.
Reported by Tran Tam
Foreign arrivals to Indonesia rose 8 percent in January year-on-year, 6.1 percent in April and 4.6 percent in July.
Meanwhile, foreign arrivals to Vietnam fell 17.7 percent to 2.48 million in the first eight months of 2009, with the number of tourists from key markets dropping by up to 35 percent, according to figures from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
The number has continued to slump every month – 17.7 percent in January, 22.2 percent in February, 28.6 percent in March, 25.7 percent in April and 17.8 percent in July.
Other countries that saw arrivals drop experienced far less of a reduction, as low as 4.5 percent in Singapore and 3 percent in China in July.
All countries were hit by the economic crisis. So why has Vietnam’s tourism sector, which employs more than 10 percent of the country’s workforce, been unable to manage as well as its neighbors’?
What did Malaysia do?
According to Victor Wee, the country did several things that would not be difficult for Vietnam to do: enhanced advertising, improved product quality, introduced new products, and enlarged its target market.
Many international musical programs attract thousands of visitors to Malaysia every year.
The Monsoon Cup sailboat race attract tourists in the rainy and windy seasons while Vietnam tourism operators accept the rainy season as “idle” time.
Malaysia also organizes cross-border tours with Indonesia, which Vietnam can do as well by cooperating with Laos and Cambodia to offer tours throughout Indochina.
Malaysia has offered homestay and eco-tours targeting young visitors from Singapore, South Korea and Japan while we just tried to attract German tourists because of a statistic that said they traveled the most.
For most countries in the region, their neighbors are the number one tourism customer: Malaysia is a VIP customer in Thailand, Indonesia is the same to Singapore and vice versa.
Vietnam considers China its number one supplier of tourists but most Chinese come just for commercial purposes in northern provinces.
We’ve got tourism strengths just like others in our region. The problem is that we are not determined enough to make use of those strengths.
Reported by Tran Tam
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