Indian arrivals to Vietnam would increase further through the implementation of specific solutions linking the two markets.

Vietnamese and Indian enterprises exchange information at the conference. Photo: nguoilaodong.com.vn

Ambassador of India to Vietnam Pranay Verma shared his expectation at the Tourism Promotion Conference between India and Vietnam held by the Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City on August 17.

“My family is looking forward to traveling to Vietnam. Currently, many airlines have reconnected flights between cities around the world. Besides, there are many opportunities to deploy solutions to attract tourists to Vietnam and India. On the Indian side, medical tourism is also very potential but not popular to many tourists,” he added.

He acknowledged that less than 200,000 Indian visitors to Vietnam before Covid-19 is a modest number, which does not show the full extent of the relationship between the two countries.

The launch of the tourism promotion conference between the two countries is part of the efforts to lure more visitors from the country with a population of 1.4 billion people to Vietnam.

Representatives from Vietnamese tourism enterprises such as Vietravel, TSTtourist, and Fiditour – Vietluxtour agreed that the potential for Indian tourists is huge. They have been contacted by Indian businesses to send Vietnamese tourists to India and attract tourists from all over the world. 

Director of Communications and Marketing of TSTtourist Company Nguyen Minh Man assessed that this is a great opportunity to attract Indian tourists because the Indian travel businesses are also willing to cooperate with their Vietnamese peers.

At the conference, 34 travel companies from India exchanged tourism information with Vietnamese companies in the context of surging demand for travel to Vietnam by Indian travelers.

According to Google’s market trend tracker tool, the volume of searches from Indian visitors for tourism services in Vietnam has increased strongly in recent months. The most searched destinations by Indian travelers are Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc Island, Hoi An Ancient Town and Dalat City.

Recently, to reach the goal of welcoming five million foreign tourists this year, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is targeting new niche markets such as India and the Middle East. Vietnam has currently issued 6,000 visas per day to Indian tourists compared to 250 visas per day before the pandemic.

In addition, one of the factors contributing to promoting the flow of tourists from India to Vietnam is successive openings of direct flights connecting famous tourist destinations between the two countries.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet and Indigo (India) are operating dozens of air routes between the two countries. In June, Vietnam Airlines officially opened an air connection between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and New Delhi. 

Meanwhile, Vietjet will operate 17 routes from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang City, and Phu Quoc Island to New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.

Nguyen Bac Toan, Director of Vietjet’s Commercial Department, said India is a very potential and strategic market for the airline in the coming years. 

“Vietjet's promotional airfares from just US$1 is a great opportunity for tour operators in India to send tourists to Vietnam,” he said.

Vishal Yadav, a representative from the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said that China has not yet opened to tourism, while the demand for international travel is very big. Vietnam has a great opportunity to welcome this source of international visitors if there is a solution to strongly promote tourism. 

"Vietnam's tourism industry needs to step up a promotion because many Indians still don't know much about Vietnam destinations," Vishal Yadav suggested.