Vietnam tourism may hit its target, but is it creating enough value?

While international arrivals to Vietnam continue to rise and the upcoming holiday and festive season is round the corner, RMIT academics say the tourism industry cannot rest on its laurels of success and must continue take a concerted and coordinated approach to meet its targets.

International arrivals to Vietnam have continued to climb, reaching 17.7 million in the first nine months of 2026, up 14.5% year on year. With this result, the country has achieved over 70% of its 2026 target of 25 million international arrivals ahead of the year-end peak travel season.

According to Dr Hyejin Park, lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management at RMIT Vietnam, recent figures suggest positive momentum, particularly with the strong growth of long-haul markets from Europe, the Americas and Oceania.

She believes such diversification could contribute to higher tourism value if those visitors stay longer and spend more. However, there is not yet enough evidence to conclude that Vietnam is consistently attracting higher-value visitors.

Looking behind the top numbers

The issue, Dr Park argues, is that arrival figures tell only part of the story.

“While they are easy to communicate and often dominate headlines, growth in visitor numbers does not necessarily mean equivalent growth in tourism value,” she said.

"If Vietnam wants to understand whether tourism growth is shifting from volume toward value, arrival numbers should be complemented by more frequent measures of expenditure per visitor, expenditure per day, and average length of stay.”

To address the gap, Dr Park believes tourism authorities should develop stronger partnerships with the private sector. Telecommunications operators could provide anonymised mobility data showing where international visitors travel and how long they stay, while banks and payment providers could offer aggregated transaction data that helps identify spending patterns.

Such information, combined with traditional surveys, would provide a timely picture of visitor behaviour and tourism value.

“A more accurate and timely picture of visitor behaviour would help policymakers move beyond simply counting arrivals and better understand how tourism expenditure is distributed across destinations and different parts of the economy, thus enabling more targeted strategies,” she said.

Creating more value from every visit

Measuring tourism value is only part of the challenge. The next question is how Vietnam can generate more of it.

According to Mr Ha Quach (Vincent), RMIT Associate Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Vietnam's future competitiveness will depend on attracting the right mix of visitors rather than chasing a single high-performing market.

“The largest source markets are not necessarily the most valuable ones,” he said.

China and South Korea already provide scale, while India offers growing opportunities in destination weddings, multi-generational family travel and premium leisure experiences. Visitors from Europe, Australia and North America often stay longer, creating opportunities for deeper and more immersive travel experiences.

In Mr Ha's view, what matters is how long visitors stay, where they spend, how widely they travel within Vietnam and whether they have a reason to return.

Rather than moving visitors quickly between destinations, Vietnam can create greater value by encouraging them to spend more time exploring the country's culture, cuisine, nature and local communities.

Business-oriented markets such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea also present opportunities to connect tourism with investment and corporate travel through the growing trend of combining business trips with leisure experiences.

“Vietnam therefore does not need a single 'golden market'; it needs the right market mix. Some markets provide scale, others deliver longer stays and higher visitor yield, while others create links between tourism, business and investment,” Mr Ha said.

Destination strategies are key

Looking at regional competitors, Mr Ha believes Vietnam has much to learn from the thinking behind Thailand's “Value over Volume” approach.

The key, he argues, is to build on Vietnam's own strengths, including its diverse regions, cuisine, cultural heritage and natural landscapes. Rather than promoting destinations individually, Vietnam could create more connected travel journeys that encourage visitors to spend additional nights exploring multiple regions.

“The aim is not simply to persuade visitors to stay longer, but to create enough depth and variety that they feel there is always more to discover, experience and come back for.”

Indonesia offers another useful lesson. According to Mr Ha, infrastructure can create capacity, but destination ecosystems determine how much value that capacity ultimately generates.

With SMEs accounting for the vast majority of businesses nationwide, Vietnam has an opportunity to strengthen connections between hotels, resorts and MICE venues on one side and restaurants, tour operators, transport providers, craft villages and local producers on the other.

The strategic question is therefore: how can every penny a visitor spends circulate through the local economy to support businesses, create jobs, and fund public services?

Vietnam aims to attract 45-50 million international visitors and earn US$80-90 billion in tourism revenue per year by 2030.

However, one of the biggest tests of Vietnam's destination strategy may come sooner than 2030.

As major investments flow into airport expansion and conference infrastructure ahead of APEC 2027 in Phu Quoc, Mr Ha argues that the real measure of success will be what happens after the summit ends.

“The more important question is not how Phu Quoc will fill those facilities during APEC; it is who will fill the airline seats, hotel rooms and convention halls in 2028, 2029 and 2030?”

He believes planning for post-APEC demand should begin now through new international air routes, destination weddings, MICE events, corporate incentives and a year-round calendar of cultural, sporting and entertainment experiences.

A broader vision for tourism

For Dr Justin Matthew Pang, Senior Program Manager in Tourism and Hospitality Management at RMIT University Vietnam, Vietnam's tourism ambitions should be understood within a much broader national development agenda.

He views tourism as one facet of a wider economic transformation that reflects the country's confidence in its future trajectory and opportunities.

“There is no better time than the present to grasp the opportunity present,” he said.

As Asia's economic influence continues to grow, Dr Pang believes Vietnam is well positioned to benefit.

"With the rise of the greater awareness of the East, Vietnam is ready to ride the Asian economic wave of the present."

Taken together, the experts suggest that Vietnam's tourism future will be defined not only by the number of visitors it attracts, but by how effectively destinations convert those visits into longer stays, broader spending and lasting economic value.

Story: Ngoc Hoang