International tourism in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2023 showed signs of improvement. The number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in Q1 reached approximately 2.7 million arrivals, equal to nearly 80% of 2022 (3.4 million arrivals) thanks to the common recovery of the international tourism market, and China’s return.

There is a change in the largest inbound markets of Vietnam in 2023. Last year, the top 10 were South Korea, the US, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, and China, respectively.

This year, South Korea, the US, and Thailand remain top 3 nations with the most visitors to Vietnam, respectively. Korea led the ranking in the first quarter with more than 810.9 thousand visitors, followed by the US (206.8 thousand) and Thailand (145.1 thousand arrivals). In Q1 2023, the North East Asian markets including Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan are taking back the top source markets to Vietnam with 4 out of 6 positions.

Notably, among the source markets of Vietnam this year, the number of Chinese visitors in Q1 was nearly double the total number of 2022. Vietnam tourism expects visitors from this huge market will soon return a lot. However, to reach 5.8 million Chinese visitors in 2019, we need more efforts.

Although there was a significant increase in the number of tourists to Vietnam in Q1 2023, the Southeast Asian market experienced a decline in rankings. Only Thailand kept its 3rd position compared to last year. Cambodia moved from No.4 to No.9, Malaysia fell from No.5 to No.7, while Singapore left No.7 to rank at No.10.

Besides the two key inbound markets to Vietnam including North East Asia and South East Asia, the US market also emerged. For 2 consecutive years, the US maintains the No. 2 position, only after South Korea. Meanwhile, before the pandemic, in 2019, it only ranked 5th in the top of Vietnam’s inbound tourism market.

Q1 saw a significant growth in international tourism to Vietnam compared to 2022. Although it cannot reach the level of Q1 2019 (4.5 million visitors), it gives a brighter picture of Vietnam’s international market in the coming times.

 

While the Chinese market has not yet fully returned, South Korea becomes the largest market of Vietnam tourism in the first three months of 2023 with 810,938 arrivals, accounting for 30% of total inbound tourists.

Before the pandemic, Korea was one of the top outbound tourism markets with the highest expenditures in the world. In 2019 only, Korean people made 28.71 million trips and spent up to 32.74 billion USD for outbound travel. It made South Korea a top sought-after market for many countries, especially those whose economies depend on tourism.

Vietnam has always been a favorite destination of Korea in recent years thanks to its beautiful beaches, rich cuisine, advantages in flight routes and reasonable costs. The number of visitors from this nation has increased rapidly over the years and once surpassed China. The number of Korean travelers to Vietnam in 2019 nearly quadrupled compared to 2015. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Korean tourists accounted for 23.8% of total international arrivals and was Vietnam’s second largest tourist market in 2019, following only China.

After COVID-19 was controlled, South Korea soon opened and welcomed international tourism back starting April 2022. It returned quickly and replaced China, which was still closed, to become the largest market of Vietnam tourism. By the end of the first 3 months of 2023, the latest statistics from the National Administration of Tourism show the preference and loyalty of Korean tourists as the market keeps leading the number of visitors to Vietnam.

However, the awareness of Korean tourists of the Vietnamese destination image is quite low. Outbox’s recent survey shows that Korean visitors’ understanding of Vietnam is just at an average level. If Vietnam can come up with a new approach to enhance its image, it is possible to attract an even larger number of visitors from South Korea.

In addition, let’s have a look back at the proportion in 2019, trips to Vietnam accounted for 15.3% of the total 28.71 million Korean trips abroad. For China, the number of trips to Vietnam only accounted for about 3.7% of the total 155 million outbound trips. Obviously, South Korea is a potential market with stable growth of travelers. Increasing the attraction and continuing to maintain the growth of Korean tourists will help Vietnam tourism to have one more durable source market, gradually getting rid of dependence on a certain market.

 

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.

 

Despite welcoming many Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese visitors, Vietnam has not really left any great footprints to them. We need to solve this issue quickly to reach the target of 8 million foreign visitors this year.

Context

South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are key markets of Vietnam’s tourism in recent years. These three markets accounted for 34.3% of total international arrivals to Vietnam in 2019. Looking at this number, most will think that the larger the number of visitors, the more visitors know about Vietnam. In fact, from the survey results “Tourism behavior of three markets in Northeast Asia” by The Outbox Company, the awareness level of Vietnamese destination image is quite low, just 4.1/7 points.

The awareness level is very important as it will influence tourists’ decision to choose a destination. Although the number of visitors to Vietnam grows every year, the awareness level of visitors from these three markets has not really corresponded to the growth potential.

In 2019 alone, the number of visitors from South Korea accounted for 23.9%. The number is huge, but in fact, most don’t know much about Vietnam. Only 18% of respondents were confident about their perception of the Vietnamese destination image.

Japan is also a potential market, but the majority of tourists (62%) admitted to being relatively knowledgeable and up to 21% have little or no awareness of Vietnam.

Similar to Japan, 21% of Taiwanese visitors have low awareness and nearly two-thirds (63%) think that their understanding of Vietnam is only average – quite good.

How to be more fascinating?

We can say that Vietnam’s tourism is facing difficulties in accessing and promoting its images to tourists from the three markets mentioned above. Though there are many scenic spots, diverse culture, heroic history and many tourism advantages, the stimulus programs and tourism products offered do not seem to really reach and help tourists to know about Vietnam. This partly explains why tourists’ awareness of the destination is not high.

Besides, with the low awareness level, it is uncertain that new visitors will consider choosing Vietnam as their next destination. Therefore, we need to change our approach or offer more diverse promotion programs to attract tourists, taking full advantage of domestic tourism in terms of geographical distance, number of flight routes, beautiful natural scenery, and more.

In order to further understand and satisfy visitors from key markets, businesses and destinations should conduct market research. From there, they can make the most detailed and relevant decisions to not only attract but also keep them coming back again and again.

Vietjet officially opened the first direct flights from Can Tho to Seoul and Da Lat to Seoul (Incheon Airport, South Korea) to welcome the festival at the end of 2022 and the beginning of the new year of 2023.

From December 21, the Da Lat – Seoul flight route operates on every Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Can Tho – Seoul route operates on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

The new flight route is the first direct flight connecting Da Lat and Can Tho to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. At the same time, Vietjet is also the only airline carrying passengers directly from Seoul to the dreamy city of Da Lat and Can Tho, the center of the Mekong Delta.

The 5-hour long flight takes visitors to experience Korean colorful culture and arts through cultural and food festivals, vibrant K-pop concerts, as well as other exciting destinations.

Conversely, Koreans can also fly to major cities of Vietnam such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and now Da Lat and Can Tho. Thanks to this opportunity, Vietnam can promote tourism to Korean tourists and the tourism recovery process.