Vietnam’s Tourism Boom Outruns Its Earnings as Industry Is Urged to Put Value Before Volume

DA NANG. Vietnam’s tourism authorities and the country’s leading hotel and travel associations on Thursday outlined a shift in priorities for the sector, away from headline arrivals and towards spending per visitor, length of stay and the strength of the destination brand. The change of emphasis came as new data showed the country growing faster than any regional peer while capturing less value from each guest.

The conference, titled “Vietnam Tourism 2027: The Right Strategic Choices for Growth”, was held at Furama Resort Danang under the Horecfex Vietnam programme and opened by Do Hong Xoan, Vice Chair of the Vietnam Tourism Association and Chair of the Vietnam Hotel Association. Speakers included the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT), STR (CoStar Group), Pear Anderson, The Outbox Company, Meta, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Sommet Education and the tourism and hotel associations of Da Nang.

The Numbers Behind the Pivot

Vietnam received 13.9 million international visitors in the first seven months of 2026, up 13.8 per cent year on year and equivalent to 56 per cent of the full-year target of 25 million, according to the National Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance. The country recorded close to 21.2 million international arrivals in 2025, a 20.4 per cent increase on 2024 and the highest figure on record, VNAT data show.

The regional picture is more mixed. Thailand’s arrivals fell 3.19 per cent to 18.5 million over the same seven months, according to the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports, while Malaysia was flat at 12.8 million in the first half of the year. Both figures were cited by Hannah Pearson, Director of the Singapore consultancy Pear Anderson, in her comparison of the three markets.

Hotel performance tells a similar story. Oxy Ong, Sales, Southeast Asia at STR (CoStar Group), told delegates that Vietnam’s revenue per available room rose 23.3 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Indonesia followed at 11.8 per cent, the Philippines at 5.9 per cent, Singapore at 4.0 per cent and Thailand at 1.0 per cent, while Malaysia slipped 0.2 per cent. Among resort destinations, Phu Quoc grew 46 per cent, Nha Trang and Cam Ranh 44 per cent and Da Nang 14 per cent, ahead of Goa, Bali, the Maldives, Phuket and Langkawi. STR’s figures also show Vietnam’s rolling twelve-month average daily rate steadily closing the gap with Thailand.

“As occupancy continues to strengthen, future performance will increasingly depend on ADR growth and the market’s ability to convert demand into pricing power,” STR concluded.

Growth Without Value

The note of caution came from The Outbox Company, a travel intelligence firm based in Ho Chi Minh City. Its Chief Executive Officer, Dang Manh Phuoc, presented estimates showing that Vietnam’s international arrivals grew 473 per cent between 2022 and 2025 and its international tourism receipts 355 per cent, in both cases the fastest among Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Over the same period, however, value per international arrival in Vietnam fell 20.6 per cent, the steepest decline of the five, to an estimated US$996 in 2025. Thailand, by Outbox’s calculation, had already climbed back above its 2022 level on the same measure.

Outbox also drew attention to the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index, in which Vietnam slipped seven places to 59th of 119 economies in the 2024 edition. Tourist service infrastructure scored 2.2 out of 7, ranking 80th; the pillar measuring tourism’s socio-economic impact scored 2.95, ranking 115th; and the “sustainability of tourism demand” pillar fell 24 places, the largest drop among the index’s 17 pillars. Vietnam and Thailand, the two destinations growing fastest in arrivals, were also the two that fell furthest in the rankings, while Indonesia and Malaysia improved their positions despite slower growth.

One further Outbox figure resonated through the panel discussion that followed: a 2025 net promoter score of 24.2 for Vietnam, against 59.2 for Singapore, 53.2 for Thailand, 35.7 for Indonesia and 34.1 for Malaysia. “Plenty of travellers are satisfied enough to return, but far fewer are willing to actively recommend the destination,” the firm’s presentation noted.

The State’s 2030 Framework

Do Cam Tho, Head of Planning and Finance at VNAT, described 2026 and 2027 as a hinge between the post-pandemic recovery and a phase of deeper, quality-led growth to 2030. VNAT’s working targets for 2030 are 45 to 50 million international arrivals, 160 million domestic trips, a direct contribution to GDP of 10 to 14 per cent, 6 million jobs and total tourism revenue of US$80 to 90 billion, roughly 1.8 times the 2025 level. The upper end of the range implies compound growth of around 10 per cent a year in foreign arrivals.

The agency’s own figures illustrate why the conference was convened. International visitors spend an estimated US$1,200 to 1,400 per trip and domestic visitors around VND2.4 to 2.6 million, levels that VNAT said had “not generated a commensurate increase in total receipts”. It identified five bottlenecks: low spending, dependence on a small number of source markets, seasonal strain on infrastructure, skills gaps in languages and data, and products that are too often duplicated and unimaginative.

The orientation to 2030 names Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Australia as core markets, with India and the Middle East as priority new markets. It favours higher-yield products such as wellness and medical tourism, MICE, golf, shopping, the night-time economy, cruise and premium coastal resorts. Seven “driver regions”, including the corridor linking Quang Tri, Hue and Da Nang, are to receive concentrated infrastructure and product investment. The government’s Tourism System Master Plan (Decision 509/QD-TTg of June 2024) set a statutory 2030 target of 35 million international arrivals; the higher range now under discussion reflects a recovery that has run well ahead of plan.

What the Operators Said

In the closing panel, moderated by Nguyen Cao Son, Chairman of APC Corporation, five executives were asked where value is being lost and how it might be recovered.

Cao Tri Dung, Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, said the city had deliberately rebalanced its source markets over several years. In 2019, of roughly 3.5 million international visitors to Da Nang, about 1.8 million came from South Korea and 900,000 from China. Today South Korea accounts for around 27 to 28 per cent and China about 10 per cent, with India, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Japan and the Philippines each contributing 4 to 5 per cent. Official data for the first half of 2026 point the same way: South Korea 20.6 per cent, China 8.6 per cent, India 6.7 per cent, the United States 5.8 per cent, Taiwan 5.5 per cent, Australia 4.8 per cent and the United Kingdom 4.5 per cent.

Mr Dung said the association’s approach to lifting spend rested on four pillars. The first is continuing to shift the mix from low-priced series tours towards independent travellers. The second is making destination information easy to find and book on the platforms visitors already use. The third is bringing the price of public attractions, many of which he said still charge VND50,000 to 70,000 for what are world-class sites, closer to international norms. The fourth is completing a product ecosystem that spans premium accommodation, dining, shopping, evening entertainment and events.

Nguyen Duc Quynh, Chairman of the Da Nang Hotel Association and Vice Chair of the Vietnam Hotel Association, said the city’s room supply was growing at 15 to 20 per cent a year, with four- and five-star occupancy reaching 90 to 94 per cent in peak periods and close to 10,000 rooms in the pipeline. He described heavy reliance on any single distribution channel as a risk, noting that online travel agency commissions approach 30 per cent in some markets, and encouraged hotels to invest in digital marketing and AI-supported direct distribution. STR’s data show Da Nang’s pipeline of rooms under construction or proposed at close to 13,000 as of June 2026, with recent occupancy gains concentrated in transient demand, which now represents 50.5 per cent of rolling twelve-month occupancy, while group business has eased to 12.7 per cent.

Dinh Trong Khoa, Director of Development, Vietnam, at IHG Hotels & Resorts, said Vietnam was one of the group’s two priority development markets in Southeast Asia alongside Thailand, and that IHG had established a Vietnam entity in 2022 to expand beyond Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City into secondary cities, resorts and industrial centres. He pointed to the arrival of further luxury brands and to recent visits by the Global Chief Executive Officers of Marriott and Accor as signs of international confidence. In his view, the two main constraints were limited awareness of Vietnam among long-haul travellers and a shortage of compelling ways for visitors to spend once they arrive.

Vu Cong, General Manager of the inbound operator Jandec Asia, offered a case study in revenue leakage. A 500-guest group his company handled in Phu Quoc over four days and three nights generated only about VND1.5 billion in turnover for the destination management company, he said, because the hotel was contracted directly or through an offshore platform and the event and dining components were booked separately. “We have the arrivals, but the money is flowing out,” he said. His remedies were practical: always present a premium alternative alongside the option a client requests, and build product ecosystems that capture ancillary spend, such as the paid souvenir photo stations at Ba Na Hills.

Mr Phuoc of Outbox argued that in Vietnam the choice between volume and value was a false one. Rapid supply growth makes volume necessary, he said, “but if we chase volume without securing quality, the only lever left is price”, citing the prolonged rate competition in Nha Trang. He added that diversifying by passport was not the same as diversifying by value, and that some of the world’s highest-spending outbound markets generate below-average value per arrival in Vietnam largely because of how they are sold to.

Long-Stay and Digital Demand

Two further presentations addressed the demand side. Markos Korvesis, Founder of Nomad Career and Co-Founder of Da Nang Nomad Fest, made the commercial case for the long-stay segment, contrasting a four-night tourist who buys a room and breakfast with a 45-night remote worker who also buys laundry, food and beverage, gym access and workspace. He cited MBO Partners’ estimate of 18.5 million US digital nomads in 2025, up 153 per cent since 2019, and an industry estimate of 40 million worldwide, and presented an illustrative scenario in which 5,000 year-round long-stay residents spending VND20 to 40 million a month would generate VND1.2 to 2.4 trillion a year in direct local spending.

Khwan Rueangkham, Partner Manager, Government and Social Impact, APAC at Meta, cited Tourism Economics research commissioned by Meta showing that 78 per cent of social media users across ten major outbound markets used Meta platforms to plan their most recent international trip, rising to 85 per cent in India and Australia. Riman Oueiti, Head of Executive Programmes and Enrolment at Les Roches and Glion (Sommet Education), turned to the talent pipeline, observing that Vietnam’s branded hotel growth is outpacing the supply of experienced Vietnamese general managers.

Investor Takeaways

For investors, the conference offered three measurable propositions. First, Vietnam’s hotel market remains in a demand-led phase: STR’s data show demand outpacing supply month after month, and RevPAR growth that leads the region. Second, the next leg of growth depends on rate rather than occupancy, and Da Nang’s pipeline, the largest in STR’s series since 2021, makes pricing discipline the variable to watch. Third, destination-level indicators that investors have rarely priced in, such as value per arrival, brand strength, reputation and recommendation rates, are now being tracked, and they are moving in the opposite direction to arrivals.

Da Nang’s own targets for 2026 are 19.1 million visitors served by accommodation establishments, including 8.7 million international guests, and revenue of close to VND70 trillion from lodging, food and beverage and travel services, according to figures released by the city in December 2025. At that date the city had nearly 2,400 accommodation establishments with about 62,000 rooms, the largest four- and five-star inventory in the country, according to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In the first seven months of 2026 it recorded 12.1 million visitor arrivals, of which 6.01 million were international, a rise of 28.1 per cent year on year, the city’s tourism promotion centre reported.

The organisers’ brief for the session captured the position on which the conference converged. The choice for 2027 is not between growth and no growth, but a change in the order of priorities: define the value the destination wants to create, choose markets and guests accordingly, and let volume grow on that foundation.

Sources: Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism; National Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance); Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports; STR (CoStar Group) presentation, 20 August 2026; The Outbox Company, “Destination Competitiveness in a New Context” and Southeast Asia Tourism Performance 2025 Recap; World Economic Forum, Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024; Pear Anderson; Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre; Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Decision 509/QD-TTg (2024); MBO Partners; Tourism Economics for Meta (2025). Panel remarks are taken from the recorded discussion and lightly edited for clarity.