Tourist sites in the northern border region such as Mau Son in Lang Son province, Sa Pa in Lao Cai province and Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province have become favourite destinations for Chinese visitors. In addition to natural magnificent views, these sites are located near the Chinese border, which is convenient for travelling between the two countries. Thanks to these advantages, Chinese travel agencies and transport businesses have teamed up to tap border tourism potential in both China and Vietnam.

“We often co-ordinate with Vietnamese businesses to facilitate visitor travel in both countries,” said Li Yao Guang, deputy head of Hei Khou Tourism Department in the Chinese province of Yunnan. “Many Chinese visitors from the south-western region of China prefer tours of northern Vietnam. However, Vietnam should organise more regular market days so that Chinese visitors have more chances to buy local specialities. When shopping in Vietnam, Chinese visitors have several difficulties, for example they cannot speak Vietnamese and are not introduced to reliable addresses for shopping.”     

These are weaknesses of the Vietnamese tourism sector in developing related services. For a long time, tourism managers and travel agencies have only focused on promoting the image of landscapes without taking into account visitors’ shopping demand. It is a paradox that during border tours, Vietnamese visitors spend much more on Chinese goods than Chinese visitors do on Vietnamese goods.

Nhu Tien Cu, deputy director of Lang Son Import-Export and Tourism Company, said an important thing is that travel agencies and craft villages know what visitors like.  

“They are not high demanding customers and their incomes are still modest, therefore they often buy Vietnamese products at reasonable prices,” said Mr Cu. “However, they require attractive patterns, particularly colourful and red products. We are confused about making attractive products for Chinese visitors.”

Currently, several border provinces are building schemes to develop tourism in combination with on-the-spot exports. To develop border tourism, businesses specialised in related services such as transport, entertainment and restaurants have been advised to improve the quality of these services. On the same 12-seater bus, Vietnamese visitors have to pay only VND2,000 for travelling from Lao Cai to Hei Khou, while Chinese visitors have to pay at least VND5,000 for travelling just 2km in Lao Cai city. To get a train ticket from Lao Cai to Hanoi, Chinese visitors have to pay 20 percent of the ticket value to hotel staff as commission. These weaknesses obviously affect the development of border tourism.

Nguyen Anh Dzung, deputy director general of Hanoi Transport Corporation, which is co-operating with Chinese partners to launch border tours, said domestic businesses should team up to compete and build stable trademarks for themselves.