In the rapidly evolving tourism landscape, understanding brand performance and adapting to changing customer expectations is crucial for competitiveness. For travel businesses, known for their growth and diverse consumer dynamics, reliable data is essential for decision-making. The Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker provides a strategic advantage by delivering actionable insights in a cost-efficient, consistent, and tailored manner. 

This blog highlights how the Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker can enhance business strategies through three key benefits: quality targeted respondents, timely insights, and cost-effectiveness.

1. Target Respondents: Reaching Your Ideal Audience

The success of any market research depends on the quality of its data. The Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker ensures credibility by using a carefully selected group of respondents who must be Vietnamese travelers having intentions to travel in the next 6 months. These participants not only represent the broader traveler demographic but are also filtered to align with the specific needs of businesses.

For example, travel agencies can gain insights from potential customers who are actively planning their trips, while airlines can explore the preferences of frequent flyers. By targeting the right audience, the survey provides precise, actionable insights that help inform branding, marketing, and customer engagement strategies.

This focused approach reduces irrelevant information and offers clarity, ensuring that businesses have access to relevant data to understand their audience’s perceptions, behaviors, and evolving preferences.

2. Timings: Real-Time Insights for a Fast-Changing Market

Consumer behavior doesn’t wait, and neither should your data. In the dynamic tourism industry, where seasonal trends, economic factors, and external events can rapidly alter market dynamics, the Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker offers an unparalleled advantage with its monthly data collection cycle.

Unlike traditional research methods that may only provide a snapshot at a specific point in time, the monthly frequency of this survey ensures that businesses receive fresh and up-to-date insights. This consistency enables brands to continuously monitor key metrics such as brand awareness, consideration, and loyalty.

For instance, a hospitality brand launching a promotional campaign can measure its impact in nearly real-time, allowing for necessary adjustments to optimize performance. Similarly, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) can track how changes in traveler sentiment affect the attractiveness of their offerings over time.

In summary, timely data empowers businesses to stay agile, enabling them to respond swiftly to market changes and maintain a competitive edge.

3. Effective-Cost: Maximizing ROI on Research Efforts

Conducting customized research projects can be prohibitively expensive, particularly for businesses that wish to monitor various aspects of their performance. The omnibus approach optimizes research investments by pooling resources across multiple organizations, enabling each participant to benefit from high-quality data at a significantly reduced cost.

For businesses in Vietnam’s travel and hospitality sectors—where budgets are often divided among various marketing and operational priorities—the Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker offers a cost-effective solution. In addition to financial savings, the ability to customize add-on questions ensures that brands receive tailored insights without the expense of a standalone study.

This cost efficiency does not compromise the depth or quality of insights. Instead, it enables businesses to continuously track important metrics such as brand health while remaining resource efficient—a crucial advantage in today’s competitive landscape.

Conclusion

For destinations and travel businesses, staying ahead in a dynamic industry requires continuous learning and informed decision-making. The Vietnam Travel-Focused Omnibus Survey is the key to transforming data into a valuable asset for brand success in the Vietnam Travel Market.

Ready to take the next step? Contact us today to discover how the Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker can elevate your brand strategies.

In a world where consumer behavior and travel preferences evolve at an accelerated pace, the ability to continuously track these changes has become a strategic necessity for travel businesses. For Vietnam—a rapidly growing market with distinctive consumer dynamics — up-to-date insights are key to maintaining relevance and capturing market share. 

This blog delves into how continuous data collection now becomes an operational advantage in today’s tourism industry. 

Adaptability to Rapid Market Changes

The modern travel landscape is characterized by rapid fluctuations driven by factors ranging from economic shifts to evolving traveler expectations. For instance, demand for travel in Vietnam is influenced by seasonal variations, emerging destinations, and even the growing impact of social media on travel decisions. Yet, adapting to these changes requires more than just awareness; it demands robust, continuous insights.

Monthly tracking data enables businesses to detect and respond to these shifts proactively. By monitoring travel demand trends among Vietnamese consumers, businesses can understand which destinations are trending, what types of trips are gaining popularity, and how spending patterns might evolve. For example, monthly insights into destination preferences reveal if travelers are increasingly seeking rural experiences over urban ones or if certain regions are seeing unexpected spikes in interest. Understanding these trends on a month-to-month basis allows businesses to tailor their marketing, adjust service offerings, and refine operational planning accordingly.

Beyond travel demand, continuous data also offers insights into booking windows and travel seasonality, helping businesses identify high-demand periods and plan their inventory and staffing levels to match. Data reflecting changes in traveler priorities—such as a renewed interest in wellness tourism or eco-friendly accommodations—empowers brands to adapt quickly to meet shifting preferences. In an environment where agility is critical, continuous travel data serves as a foundational pillar that enables brands to stay relevant and responsive.

Demand for travel in Vietnam is influenced by seasonal variations, emerging destinations, and even the growing impact of social media on travel decisions

Enhanced Brand Health and Marketing Insights

For travel brands, measuring brand health is as essential as tracking demand. Brand health data captures the perceptions, awareness, and loyalty levels among consumers, offering critical insights that fuel effective marketing strategies. 

The tourism sector is notably competitive, with a multitude of brands vying for consumer attention. Continuous data on brand health allows companies to see, in near real-time, how their campaigns are resonating and whether their messaging aligns with consumer expectations. Monthly tracking of marketing effectiveness metrics gives brands a clear picture of which campaigns are most effective in driving brand awareness, which channels yield the highest engagement, and where to adjust budget allocations.

The Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker provides monthly brand health measurements, which include awareness, recall, and perception metrics compared to competitors, enabling brands to gauge their standing in the minds of Vietnamese travelers.

With Vietnam’s fast-growing middle class and a notable shift in travel preferences post-pandemic, brand health has become a significant indicator of potential market capture. For example, as businesses invest in digital marketing and influencer partnerships, tracking shifts in brand perception monthly provides a way to fine-tune these initiatives. If data shows a positive correlation between digital campaigns and increased brand awareness, businesses can allocate more resources to these areas with confidence. Conversely, if brand perception stagnates or declines, it indicates the need to refine messaging or pivot strategies.

Additionally, continuous tracking supports competitive benchmarking. By assessing how a brand’s health compares to competitors on a regular basis, businesses can identify their strengths and address weaknesses before they impact market share. For instance, if Vietnamese travelers increasingly associate a competitor’s brand with premium experiences, a business may choose to enhance its luxury offerings or adjust its positioning to capture this lucrative segment. Continuous brand health monitoring thus becomes a vital tool for sustaining growth in a market where consumer loyalty is earned, not assumed.

Customization for Business-Specific Needs

Customization in research is crucial because travel trends can vary significantly based on demographics, regional differences, and even consumer psychographics. For instance, an airline looking to optimize its domestic routes may focus its add-on questions on preferred travel times, reasons for choosing specific routes, and travel expectations post-pandemic. Meanwhile, a hospitality group could inquire about travelers’ expectations around safety, sustainability, or in-room technology to better tailor their services to these preferences.

Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker’s Add-On Questions feature allows businesses to include specific queries that address unique challenges or capture nuanced insights. 

In the era of personalized experiences, having access to tailored data allows brands to create more relevant and effective strategies. Rather than relying on generalized data, businesses can use customized insights to understand how different consumer segments respond to specific offerings, from high-end services to budget-friendly travel packages. For instance, if a hotel chain learns through add-on questions that younger Vietnamese travelers prioritize eco-friendly initiatives, it could adjust its branding to emphasize sustainability practices, aligning itself more closely with this demographic’s values.

The ability to customize data collection ensures that insights remain relevant to a company’s specific goals and audience. In an industry where customer needs are diverse and multifaceted, having this level of flexibility enables businesses to capture actionable insights and maintain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

Continuous travel data collection is imperative. The ability to track travel demand, monitor brand health, and customize research allows businesses to stay attuned to consumer behavior and make data-driven decisions that maximize impact. By leveraging monthly insights, businesses can anticipate trends, enhance brand engagement, and deliver value to travelers in ways that resonate.

The summer of 2024 has seen a strong rebound in travel demand among Vietnamese consumers. According to Outbox’s Vietnam Travel-focused Omnibus Survey, 84.5% of respondents expressed their intention to travel during this season, reflecting a significant recovery in leisure activities post-pandemic. However, shifts in travel behavior, planning, and destination choices indicate that Vietnamese travelers are making more thoughtful decisions than in previous years.

Vietnamese travelers are making more thoughtful decisions

Travel Intentions and Planning Phases

Among those planning to travel, 51.8% have not made concrete arrangements, suggesting that many Vietnamese still weigh their options before committing to a trip. This could be due to uncertainties regarding financial considerations or final destination choices. Only 14.3% have fully arranged their trips, while 18.3% are partially prepared. This highlights the more cautious and deliberate nature of travel planning in the current environment, where flexibility is key.

The preference for coastal areas and major cities underscores a desire for relaxation and easy access to amenities.

Destination Choices and Travel Periods

Domestic destinations remain a priority for the majority of Vietnamese travelers, with 75.9% opting for domestic trips and only 24.1% planning to travel internationally. The preference for coastal areas and major cities underscores a desire for relaxation and easy access to amenities.

On the international front, Japan leads the list of preferred destinations, attracting 28.5% of respondents, followed by Korea (25.9%), Thailand (15.0%), China (11.4%), and Singapore (8.8%). The strong ties between these countries and Vietnam, as well as the availability of short-haul flights, make them appealing choices for overseas travel.

Short-trip vacations have gained popularity among Vietnamese travelers, with trip stays typically lasting 3-4 nights. In terms of budget, most Vietnamese travelers plan to spend 2-4 million VND per night for each trip.

Vietnamese travelers in the summer of 2024 exhibit diverse and evolving preferences, driven by a desire for both relaxation and autonomy. While self-planned trips remain the dominant choice, all-inclusive packages continue to cater to a significant segment of the market. As travel demand recovers, service providers will need to innovate and adapt to changing consumer behaviors, particularly by leveraging social media and video content to influence planning decisions.

The insights from Outbox’s Vietnam Travel Market Monthly Tracker offer valuable guidance for the tourism industry as it seeks to capitalize on renewed travel interest. By understanding the nuanced needs of different traveler demographics, businesses can better tailor their offerings and optimize customer engagement in the years ahead.

Summer is a peak season for travel, and businesses are always looking for ways to understand the behaviors of travelers. According to Vietnam Travel Market Tracker Q2/23, Vietnamese tourists are unfazed by the economic situation, and have a highly excited and prepared to Summer vacation. Domestic destinations are the most tourism popular choice for Vietnamese tourist. Regarding the type of tourism, Culinary and Nature & outdoors are the most types of Vietnamese tourists for their summer trip.

Demographics

The demographic of Vietnamese travelers in summer is as follows:

Gen Y: 48%
Gen Z: 43%
Baby Boomer: 8%

The average monthly income of Vietnamese travelers is around 15-45 million VND/month, taking 47%. Below 15 million VND is around 40% and above 45 million VND/month is 12%.

Concern about the economic impact

Vietnamese tourists have a medium level of concern about the economic impact of their travel, as indicated by a score of 5.3 on a scale of 1 to 10. This is a slight decrease from Q1/23 by 0.1. A score of 5.3 on the scale of worries indicates that someone is somewhat concerned about the economic impact of their travel. This means that they are aware of the issue and they are thinking about it, but they are not overly worried about it.

Preferred types of trip

Vietnamese tourists enjoy a variety of travel experiences, from culinary tourism to nature tourism to beach holidays to city breaks to cultural tourism. The top 5 preferred types of trip for Vietnamese tourists in summer are:

Culinary/Food & wine (21%)
Nature & outdoors (18%)
Coast & sea (17%)
City breaks (15%)
Culture & Heritage (14%)

Travel sentiment according to household income and destinations

Vietnamese tourists are excited to travel in summer, both domestically and internationally. Inbound trips are slightly more popular than outbound trips. Travel sentiment is proportional to household income, with people with higher incomes more likely to be excited to travel.
This shows that economic factors do play a role in travel sentiment, but they are not the only factor. People with higher incomes are more likely to be able to afford to travel, but they are also more likely to have the resources to plan and book travel.

Inbound trips are slightly more popular, with 51% of respondents excited to take an inbound trip and 46% planning to take an outbound trip. There is a strong correlation between travel sentiment for a trip and its chosen destinations. The further away the destination is selected, the lower the percentage of tourists who have already started preparing for the trip.

Source: Vietnam Travel Market Tracker Q2/23 

Travel market research company The Outbox Company unveils “Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior” Outbox Capture. It provides data and information on behaviors and psychology of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese outbound tourists in the coming time.

Introduction

South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are three of the markets with a large and continuously increasing number of visitors to Vietnam in the period 2015 – 2019. As international tourism resumed, and in order to know more about these big markets, Outbox conducted the Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior report.

According to the survey results, tourists from these three countries have a quite low level of awareness about the Vietnamese destination image. It means they haven’t known or been strongly impressed by Vietnam. From the data, Outbox expects to help businesses and destinations in Vietnam come up with new approaches to attract Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists. The target is to welcome 8 million foreign visitors in 2023.

Key content

The similarities of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese markets

According to statistics, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are among the top countries with the most outbound tourists in the world. South Korea has the largest number of outbound travelers, followed by Japan and Taiwan, respectively. In 2019, more than 28.7 million Koreans traveled abroad, of which 4.3 million chose to visit Vietnam.

Asian destinations (including Vietnam) are always on the list of favorites of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists. In 2019, before the pandemic, Vietnam ranked second in the top destinations for Korean tourists, just behind Japan due to expansion of flight routes, near distance and low costs. Another similarity of the three markets is the high spending of outbound tourists. Spending levels in all three countries increased evenly, averaging about 7% per year.

Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese outbound travel behaviors

More than 40% of outbound travelers from the three countries choose standard hotels (2-3 stars). They search for information at travel websites/blogs or search online. Safety is the top factor affecting their decision to go abroad. While Korean tourists are concerned about accommodations, the Japanese want their experiences worth their money, and Taiwanese tourists especially care about transport.

Compared to Japan and South Korea, the travel sentiment of Taiwanese tourists remains low. The long pandemic and strict restrictions have partly affected their psychology. Outbox’s survey shows that although 36.4% of Taiwanese tourists are willing to pay more for travel, 40.7% plan to cut travel spending to save for health care. Simultaneously, more than 40% of Korean and Japanese tourists are willing to raise their budgets for overseas trips in the coming times.

More details can be found at “Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior” Outbox Capture by The Outbox Company.

South Korea has always been among the top 10 countries with the most tourists to Vietnam. That’s why understanding travel behaviors of this market in the near future should be concerned.

Currently, the Chinese market still has many unknowns, Russian tourists have not returned yet, while the Indian market is quite complicated. Therefore, the Korean market is an important “red dot sight” for Vietnam tourism to reach the target of international visitors in 2023.

Potential of the Korean market

From 2015 – 2019, the number of Korean tourists to Vietnam kept increasing, from over 1.1 million to more than 4.2 million arrivals. With an annual average growth rate of 10.7% and the highest record of more than 35 million trips in 2018, Korea led in the number of outbound visitors in the period 2015 – 2019. Moreover, their spending on overseas travel is also among the top in the world.

In terms of favorite attractions, Asian countries are always their top choice. Specifically, up to 80% of Korean tourists chose to go abroad to Asian destinations such as Japan, Vietnam,… It can be seen that the expansion of low-cost flight routes, geographical distance and the travel costs have created advantages for Asian destinations, thereby attracting tourists from this attractive market.

Though always in the top destinations of Korean tourists, it’s not yet good news for Vietnam tourism. Because according to The Outbox Company’s survey of outbound travel behaviors, the level of awareness about Vietnam of Korean tourists is only average – good. It means they just know a bit but not understand well about Vietnam. If the country wants to attract and make them return, it should get to know them more and try to change the approach.

Behaviors of Korean outbound travelers

Outbox survey shows that 47% Korean tourists are planning for foreign trips in the next 6 months. The three key factors influencing their decision to travel abroad are safety, price, and measures to prevent and control the pandemic. They said they would be willing to pay a lot to get the most complete experience at the property. 39.2% of Korean tourists surveyed preferred the luxury hotel and resort segment. This once again confirms their interest in accommodation.

When Korean tourists need information for their trips, they will search in travel blogs and websites. After getting enough necessary information, most of them will book through online travel agents (OTAs). Due to high travel demand and long disconnection, it is not a surprise that they are willing to spend more for upcoming foreign trips (44.8%).

Businesses and tourist spots in Vietnam can use the above data to please more and more Korean visitors. The goal is not only to attract visitors, but also to raise their awareness of the Vietnamese destination image, thereby keeping them coming back.

More details can be found at “Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior” Outbox Capture published by The Outbox Company.

 

The year 2022 marks a strong revival of the tourism industry after being walloped by the two-year pandemic. According to previous assertions from The Outbox Company, the outbound tourism market of Vietnamese tourists has not decreased. It has been pent up and temporarily “frozen” due to external factors such as travel regulations, health risks, pandemic or travel costs, etc.

According to the report “How Vietnamese are reconnecting with outbound travel?” from The Outbox Company, in the first nine months of 2022, 88.5% of Vietnamese outbound travelers took both domestic and outbound trips. This proves that the outbound tourism market does not negatively affect the domestic tourism market. On the other hand, these two markets develop independently and in parallel depending on the needs and affordability of Vietnamese tourists. Although the tourism situation still has certain limitations, the outbound travel demand of Vietnamese tourists is still increasing, especially in leisure travel.

 

Due to the pent-up travel demand in the past two years, the number of Vietnamese tourists traveling abroad began to increase when Vietnam and the world loosened travel restrictions and opened the border in March 2022. According to a survey by Outbox, the main motivation for making overseas trips right after the pandemic is not only for relaxation and vacation. But it is also the desire to reconnect with outbound travel after a long lockdown.

29.25% of Vietnamese tourists surveyed said traveling abroad is a regular activity that helps them reconnect with their passion for travel and arouses their passion to explore the world.

It can be seen that the pent-up demand for overseas trips during the two years of border closure has motivated Vietnamese people to take leisure outbound trips. 

In addition, the opening of the border has also put foreign service tourism back on the right track. However, only over 30% of survey respondents said that they travel abroad to do business or to attend conferences and exhibitions.

In January 2022, the “Vietnamese Travel Sentiment Report” showed that concerns about loved ones’ safety (both the elderly & children) were among the major barriers to travel. Nevertheless, until now, when concerns about safety have been significantly reduced, the desire to reconnect with family and friends of Vietnamese tourists after a long time of separation has also been revived.

The pent-up demand for outbound travel is one of the reasons for the explosion of the new trend of “revenge tourism”. According to the report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), by 2030, resort tourism will also be the most popular form of tourism.

Besides the demand for overseas trips in general and outbound leisure ones in particular, Vietnamese tourists are willing to pay more to experience and relieve stress. 65% of survey respondents spent more on their trips in 2022 than they did on trips in 2019. While 22% spent the same and only 13% spent less on their first outbound after COVID-19.

The increasing number of foreign tourists and the high affordability are signs of a positive recovery for Vietnam’s outbound market after the pandemic. All research and outstanding information will be found in the Vietnam Outbound Travel report.

The Outbox Company