European market

Tourism sector urged to further tap European market

The EuroCham Tourism and Hospitality Sector Committee has called for Vietnam's tourism officials and companies to prepare proper products and improve the environment to attract more European travelers.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily on Tuesday, committee chairman Miquel Angel Perez said European travelers needed customized packages and urged local travel officials and companies to prepare for this if they were to win more European tourists.

Perez said more Europeans would come to Vietnam to look into the country's history, visit nice mountains and beaches, Halong Bay, and explore the culture of minority ethnic groups.

"Vietnam has a lot of potential to attract European travelers," Perez said. He stressed it was also good for Vietnam to promote its cuisine as it is not spicy so everybody can eat it.

Perez said figures showed more than 500,000 Europeans visited Vietnam last year, and expected the number to near 600,000 this year. About 80% of the Europeans to Vietnam are leisure travelers and the rest come for business and family visits.

He said France was Vietnam's biggest source of European travelers, contributing 65,000 in the first four months of 2008 and hopefully 200,000 in all of 2008. German visitors are expected to reach 180,000 this year.

Perez said tourists had emerged from the Eurozone with some 130,000 from the United Kingdom this year, 30,000 from Holland, 25,000 from Italy, 20,000 from each of Spain, Norway and Switzerland, 60,000 from Russia, 50,000 from Sweden, more than 18,000 from each of Belgium and Finland.

Perez said Europeans went on holiday for two to three weeks, booked package tours worth a minimum of 3,000-4,000 euro and spared US$2,000-3,000 for their own spending.

He proposed Vietnam map out plans to attract medium, medium-high and high-income European travelers as "they have good budgets" to do the shopping when they were in Vietnam.

Many Europeans now travel to the United States because of the euro rise against the dollar, but also like to come to Vietnam, Perez said, so now is a good time for Vietnam to woo more Europeans and try to turn the low season here into the high season for European vacationers as summer is a holiday time in the continent.

The number of European visitors to Vietnam is forecast to continue growing next year, Perez said. Amidst concerns over a slowdown in international tourist arrivals in Vietnam this year, he projected an increase of 10% in European arrivals this year.

The Vietnam National Administration for Tourism said the country attracted 2.62 million foreign visitors in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 160,000 visitors.

Perez attributed the slower-than-expected increase in international arrivals in Vietnam to the world economic downturn as well as rising costs in Vietnam.

However, Perez believed international tourist, arrivals would grow when things got better as a result of tourism-supported events such as the Miss Universe 2008 in Nha trang earlier this month and the 28th ASEAN Tourism Forum, the biggest tourism event in the region scheduled in Vietnam in early 2009.

Perez also insisted the country fix problems with human resources, underdeveloped infrastructure, environmental pollution, disturbance by vendors and lack of long-term marketing programs. He also suggested visa exemptions for Europeans, like in Thailand where they did not need to apply for a visa if they stayed no more than one month.

(Source: SGT)

Tag: Cuisine , Culture , Environment , Halong , Holiday , International , Nha Trang , Tour , Tourism , Tourist , Travel , Vietnam

Tourism sector urged to further tap European market

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