As Vietnam’s travel sector continues to evolve and as prospects of international travel become increasingly feasible with vaccination rollouts, travel and tourism players have to adapt to survive. This article gives the highlights about Vietnam’s Outbound Market based on the Vietnam Outbound Travel 2022 Report for the country’s travel and tourism companies to help you prepare sales & marketing plans and achieve goals.

After the pandemic is controlled, the number of Vietnamese traveling outbound has dramatically increased. As travel confidence and readiness are gradually restored, Vietnamese have started putting overseas destinations on their travel plan for Summer 2023. Travel companies should therefore rise to the occasion and capture value from this opportunity.

The post-COVID-19 Vietnamese tourists strongly prefer in-region destinations, with 54% of respondents saying they took a trip to Singapore and 49% chose Thailand as their ‘comeback’ destination. In comparison, another destination from the North East Asia region that is among the top Vietnamese outbound travelers is South Korea, with 51% of respondents in the survey traveling in the first nine months of 2022.

TOP 5 Asian destinations traditionally were the most popular destinations of Vietnamese travelers due to numerous favorable considerations, such as more straightforward visa procedures, more affordable prices, and convenient transportation. However, with the growth of income, the TOP 5 destinations of Vietnamese travelers gradually expanded from South East Asia to the broader region and the world.

Due to their proximity, Singapore and Thailand are primarily at the top of the mind of Vietnamese travelers when considering short vacations outside the country. Moreover, the cost of traveling to those destinations is also a vital factor contributing to their popularity among the Vietnamese outbound traveler community. In 2019 alone, Thailand received more than 1 million Vietnamese arrivals, while Singapore was a chosen destination of 0,59 million arrivals from Vietnam, followed by South Korea with 0,52 million Vietnamese arrivals. The three destinations continue to be the destinations of choice for many Vietnamese travelers.

As COVID-19 has brought new sensitivities, it has also changed the travel references of Vietnamese tourists. We asked respondents what the three most significant factors influence their choice of destination. Nearly half (49,6%) of all respondents considered the cost of the trip to be among the top priority aspects, followed by the availability of information about the safety of the destination (44,6%) and the characteristics of the destination that match personal preferences (41,8%).

Tracking changes in travel regulations and efforts to restart international travel activities of destinations worldwide, it can be seen that in addition to developing measures to ensure the safety of visitors, destinations also offer promotions and attractive incentive programs to attract international tourists. This makes the outbound trip cost significantly reduced. Therefore, cost-effectiveness could not be a comparative advantage of travel packages offered by travel agents during this critical period.

Despite shifting the types of trips from group tours to self-planned trips, Vietnamese outbound travelers will present a strong bond with family in their travel preference.

54% of travelers reported that they took an outbound trip with their family members. This figure is similar to what was discovered before the pandemic, in which 42% of Vietnamese people in Gen Y travel with a family member. More than half of Gen X travel with family members (56%), while only 27% of Gen Z, when asked about travel companions, said to travel with family members.

The uncertain and fast-changing travel restrictions have also resulted in a shift in travelers’ planning and booking habits. Vietnamese outbound travelers are less willing to book travel months in advance and are increasingly seeking flexible bookings.

Travel players in Vietnam can seek to accelerate the industry’s recovery by capturing emerging growth opportunities in outbound tourism as they gradually rebuild Vietnamese travelers’ confidence. Developing outbound tourism is important for tourism businesses as well as meeting increasing demand. Our Vietnam Outbound Insight Report should set the stakeholders in Vietnam’s travel industry in the right direction and help them thrive in the tourism economy of the future.

The Outbox Company

With the world gradually coming out of the restrictions, it’s true to say that Vietnamese are hungry to be free to travel again after more than two years of being trapped within the borders, now is a necessary time to assess how the last years have impacted Vietnamese outbound travelers’ reference in choosing destinations. The answer will be complex, like the COVID-19 crisis, blending both fact and emotion.

A survey on travel sentiment in October 2021 showed that while most Vietnamese travelers were confident about the positive movement toward the endemic, they continued to be wary of safety and new virus variants as their most significant concerns when planning their trips. In particular, traveling abroad received the highest level of caution, involving the risk of gathering large numbers on an airplane, strict travel restrictions, and quarantine requirements from different countries. However, these have been easing over time as countries worldwide are shifting to normalcy. 

Research conducted by Outbox in September as part of the Vietnam Outbound Travel series reveals that in-region destinations still entice Vietnamese tourists.

Thailand, Singapore, and Korea are the top three go-to destinations once they resume outbound travel.

Considering what influences Vietnamese tourists’ decision to choose an outbound destination, cost and accessibility (visa requirement) have been consistently the two most important factors. Firstly, short-haul destinations, with a relatively low cost of traveling, are consistently among the top destinations that attract many Vietnamese tourists. Secondly, as the proportion of young travelers of Millennials and Gen Z is dominating the market, the trend of self-planned overseas trips also becomes increasingly popular; therefore, destinations with simple visa procedures will easily be the choice of Vietnamese tourists. These explained the popularity of nearby destinations within the Southeast Asian region, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, and Malaysia, in the choice of Vietnamese outbound travel in the last few years. 

However, while there is reason to be optimistic for a robust recovery in traveler spending once the COVID-19 virus is controlled due to pent-up demand, with 65% of outbound tourists spending more for their trips in 2022 and 22% keeping their travel budget at the level of 2019, the post-pandemic period upended many changes with the appearance of unprecedented factors, including the element of fear and concern of ongoing uncertainty. Traveling to any destination involves risk and uncertainty; therefore, tourists evaluate the characteristics of a destination, possible negative consequences, and various factors such as necessity and values. In this case, it is about the hygiene and safety of destinations. 

Another characteristic of Vietnamese outbound tourists that reflects on their choice of destination is their spending priority.  Most Vietnamese tourists choose social and shareable experiences such as sightseeing and exploring local cuisines as their primary reason for traveling. Shopping in malls comes third on the list of must-do activities.

In addition, Vietnamese travelers are particularly drawn to experiences they can participate in socially and then share via common social media platforms. Contents on social channels and the popularity of travel vlogging among the young Vietnamese community also contribute to the flow of outbound travel.

With these elements in place, not surprising that Asia destinations with a harmonized combination of landscapes, activities, and shopping have always attracted Vietnamese tourists. 

In the initial phase of reconnecting with international travel, Vietnamese tourists tend to prioritize familiar destinations with easy-to-plan itineraries to satisfy travel demand that has been locked up. However, this trend may only partially reflect the characteristics of Vietnamese outbound tourists. Uncertainty is a new certainty; in recovering to the pre-pandemic level, new references and behavior of Vietnamese tourists are expected to emerge. Like other consumer habits, leisure travel, especially outbound travel, will also be affected by economic factors and how the industry operates as the pandemic left lasting marks.

The Outbox Company

In parallel with determining domestic tourism as a pioneering and sustainable solution, the reopening of international tourism will accelerate the recovery journey and help Vietnam’s tourism industry “get back to its old self” to thrive on the bounce back. However, to attract international travelers in general, and neighboring Asian travelers in particular to Vietnam safely and effectively, Vietnam’s tourist destinations need to re-study their insights about travel, especially when their behaviors and mindsets have changed immensely due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, tracking the travel sentiment of international travelers is crucial for travel businesses and tourist destinations to build a route of welcoming international tourists as well as plan appropriate and effective product development, marketing and communications strategies.

According to data from The Outbox Company (Outbox), a travel & hospitality market research firm, travelers from South Korea and Singapore are likely to travel abroad once travel restrictions are eased. On the other side of the spectrum, China, Japan and Taiwan are quite hesitant and cautious about taking an international trip because the regulations on self-isolation and border closure of these two countries are stringent. Therefore, it can be concluded that the level of international travel sentiment of respondents across the 5 surveyed countries is significantly different.

 

Specifically, regarding the willingness to travel overseas, Korea and Singapore are expected to lead the way in travel optimism when the travel sentiments of these two markets are at 90% and 75% respectively. As a consequence of high vaccination rates and eased travel restrictions, South Korea and Singaporean travelers are expected to restart outbound travel at the earliest, compared to the other three markets surveyed.

Nevertheless, 70% of Chinese travelers are hesitant about rediscovering the world. The reason is the strict isolation requirements as well as the “Zero Covid” policy (wiping out infections in the entire community) from the government. However, the good news is that the young Chinese travelers might lead the trend of returning to international travel once the “Zero Covid” policy is lifted and the door of international travel is officially reopened.

With a rate of 45%, the lowest compared to other Asian markets surveyed, Japanese travelers remain cautious about traveling abroad due to their concerns about the complication of the global pandemic situation. This means that Japanese travelers will only take an international trip when the global pandemic situation is well controlled. Moreover, although the Japanese Government has been open to certain policies of tourism recovery and reopening of international travel, the Japanese travelers remain hesitant to travel overseas. It poses a myriad of difficulties for travel businesses and tourist destinations in Vietnam, with accurately predicting when the Japanese travelers have intent for returning international travel. However, Japanese respondents said that they also keep the intention to travel internationally because they are in the process of collecting information and planning for the next international trip. In the same way, the level of international travel sentiment of Taiwanese travelers is relatively low (50%) by the fact that they have a tendency to consider the current situation of the pandemic when choosing destinations for their next trip. Furthermore, the main reason why the majority of Taiwanese travelers are not willing to return to international travel is that the vaccination rate in this country is low compared to other countries in neighboring areas.

It can be seen that the international travel sentiment of Asian travelers depends not only on the government regulations of the origin country but also on the optimal control of the pandemic as well as the “openness” to the regulations and policies of the receiving country.

Recently, many countries in the neighboring areas have eased travel restrictions and restored regular international commercial flights. These positive signals will create favorable conditions for Vietnam tourism to break the “frozen statement” and officially welcome international travelers back on March 15.

Source: The Outbox Company