Things need to improve for Vietnam tourism

Vietnam is singing and dancing with the record that Vietnam tourism got last year with 10.000.000 international tourists. However, to have more visitors in the coming year, many things need to be done immediately because tourists on a Vietnam travel still complain:

1. Vietnam visa policy has been loosen, improved and the government did offer Visa exemption for some nationalities like UK, Spain, Italia, Germany and France, but the list should include other names like Australia, The Netherlands, US, etc. Then, Vietnam will definitely welcome more tourists to visit. Vietnam tourism will become competitive compared to other countries in the region.

2. Priority for International tourists - This is a must. At present, there in no priority for tourists at tourist attractions. For example, to visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, tourists have to wait for hours in queue under the heat of the Sun, waiting to visit Uncle Ho, which is bad because tourists have to spend a lot of time doing nothing. This problem happens everywhere in Vietnam, so priority for international tourists is a must.

3. Sanitary is another problem. Public toilets are Vietnamese style and normally horrible to tourists.

4. In city like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, tourists are sometimes annoyed by street vendors and treated with tricks. Same problems with taxi drivers.

5. Shopping for souvenirs is tourists' demand, but shopping tour is uncomfortable for tourists when they are asked to stop at shopping centre everywhere on their Vietnam tour from Ho Chi Minh city to Hanoi.

6. Quality of employees who work in tourism should be well-trained. We have seen tour guides speaking good English, but have no good knowledge, background and experience. Some guides speak poor English, some others are not professional. Same things happen with drivers, hotel's staff, etc.

7. Vietnam tourism needs to see what is best things for tourists and needs action. Recently, Vietnam travel agents got angry at the ridiculous ban on kayaking activity on Halong bay from Quang Ninh authority. This was a bad decision as they did not work for tourist's smile.

8. There are many Vietnam travel agents, offering low quality Vietnam tour packages and not having full licenses to work as international tour operator, but due to the lack of control and management, such Vietnam travel agents are causing bad images for Vietnam travel services.