The effective exploitation of different types of MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) has brought in a high stream of tourism revenue and open up a wealth of opportunities that will spur Vietnam’s socio-economic development.
Ho Chi Minh City, for example, has identified MICE tourism as one of the four main tourism types, each of which has been made a top priority for future development along with eco-tourism, cultural tourism and shopping tourism.

Visitors can stay in stilt houses in Hoa Binh Province’s Mai Chau District.

In fact, MICE tourism has been exploited by travel companies for many years. In 2011, MICE Vietnam Club made its debut in Ho Chi Minh City with the aim of calling on businesses, hotels and travel units to get involved in advertising this new type of tourism.
Tran Thi Viet Huong, Vietravel’s marketing and PR Director, said MICE tourism has attracted attention from international visitors who recognize Vietnam as a safe and friendly destination with a favorable investment environment. Several MICE programs have been organized at many tourist attractions throughout the country.
However, experts emphasized the need to strengthen close co-ordination among state agencies and other units for MICE services such as aviation, travel companies, and hotels. There is also a pressing need to work out an overall strategy for developing MICE tourism.
Besides MICE model, many regions throughout the nation have focused on the development of homestay services as they help visitors not only appreciate the beautiful landscape but also offer a closer look at culture, history and daily lifestyles of local people.
Sapa is one of destinations that attract the largest number of both foreign and domestic visitors choosing homestay services for their holiday.
Visitors can also stay in stilt houses in Hoa Binh Province’s Mai Chau District, fishing villages in Ha Long or rural villages in Mekong Delta region.
Sea and island tourism is becoming a new trend in Vietnam and one of the key tourism products, helping transform tourism into one of the key economic industries in the country.
With a coastline if and 3,000 islands, the country has a rich potential for sea and island tourism development. Vietnam ranks 27th out of 156 countries in terms of coastline length and has many beautiful beaches, of which Da Nang beach is considered one of the six most attractive one on the planet by Forbes. Ha Long and Nha Trang are among top beautiful bays in the world.
Vietnam formed three sea and island tourism centers – Ha Long, Da Nang and Nha Trang offering modern and luxury accommodation services.
However, experts have said the results do not live up to the rich potential. Many obstacles still remained like a lack of services, poor products, and lax security in some places.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism approved a project to develop sea and island tourism by 2020 with the aim of welcoming 22 million foreigners and 58 million domestic visitors, grossing VND200,000 billion in revenue in the process.
Craft village tourism has also proved an attraction, receiving great attention from visitors, especially foreign tourists. Apart from improving product design and quality, tourism development is regarded as an effective solution to fully tap advantages of Vietnam’s traditional craft villages.
Vietnam has more than 2,000 traditional craft villages, focusing on 11 major fields including textile, wood, lacquer, ceramic, glass, embroidery, rattan, handicraft paper, wood carving, stone carving, copper and silver engraving.
According to some international tourism experts, the combination of tourism and traditional craft villages has become more popular than in other ASEAN nations. This has facilitated the development of tourism and created competitive advantages over other nations in the region.
Experts said that craft villages have been considered a high quality type of tourism as they preserve non-tangible and tangible cultural heritages, which has contributed to forming the nation’s cultural value system.