Editor's note: Stivi Cooke is an Australian living in Hoi An, located in central Vietnam.
Shifting the blame for poor Vietnamese tourism is similar to being on a burning boat in Ha Long Bay where the captain is shouting ‘Who started the fire?’ and the passengers are shouting ‘Why don’t you have emergency life rafts?’ when nobody has realized the boat is sinking yet.
One point of view is that tourists have unrealistic expectations and don’t do enough research or plan their holidays well. Shouldn’t tourism exceed expectations?
Somehow questions like ‘Where you from?’, ‘Where you go now?’ and picking your nose and checking your hair while waiting to serve guests do not represent four-star service. Yelling across the room is not three-star service. Ordering something from a local menu and then discovering that the staff members have to run down the street to get the meat, fish and banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) are also a turn-off. Two stars. Deadly bus drivers playing ‘chicken’ in the traffic rates a 0.01 star in my book.
Tourists that don’t plan their holidays well? It is the age of the Internet, and tourists are booking and researching their travel online, avoiding agencies and looking for adventure and comfort in the same tour package, seeking something new to experience almost by chance: finding happy things by accident. But how do they find it? Marketing and promotion are still poorly organized – take a hard look at any badly translated website for tourists in this country. I’d fix it for free but I’m booked until 2020.
So I’m confused: are tourists the enemy?
Everyone knows the number of tourists is falling – and something that has to change, at the very heart of the problem, I believe, is the unwillingness of Vietnamese to change their ways.
Valuing improvements as part of the national culture should be taught in schools (this is the South Korean way). Innovate and use imagination. Accept expert advice and act upon it and most importantly of all – be consistent. Rules, visas, travel discounts and much more seem to change on an almost weekly basis with no guarantee for the traveler of how long the changes will last. If I want to guess what will happen next, I’ll go to a casino.
There are now visa waivers for an increased number of countries yet the authorities have said ‘until’. What’s the point of inviting more tourists if you are going to close the doors again later? Another point is the 15-day waver and then ‘Get out!’ That doesn’t make sense – surely the longer they stay, the more they spend, right?
The visa waiver list is not comprehensive either; is it such a good idea to leave nationalities such as the Australians – among the highest-spending tourists for Vietnam – off the list? Want to work here? Go to the border and come back. Snakes on airplanes are more welcoming than that.
As an eight billion U.S. dollar a year industry, ‘near enough’ is not going to work with such aggressive markets like Thailand, Cambodia and soon – Myanmar, actively promoting service and adventure to jaded foreigners.
Vietnam is built on shifting sands – sudden changes in overseas arrivals demand that the tourism industry be more flexible and quicker to adapt to changes in tourism numbers from different markets. The Russian market is going up and down. The Chinese come and go but how regularly? Again, training and marketing. I’ll even write the textbooks if you give me a permanent residency book!
One last point: money. While I agree that tourists need to be more savvy about asking up front about prices and services before they pay, quibbling over a 50,000 dong coffee bill is a bit Donald Trump. Use your feet – if this hotel is hopeless, move on. If that café is no good, try talking to the staff first: see if they understand the difference between bacon and butter as sounds.
Vietnam! Pull your socks up! Straighten your tie! Get some English lessons and learn about our culture before you try to sell us yours. And stop hiding that charm!
