Tourists complain about shortage of high-class services in Vietnam

Hoang Huu Loc, Deputy director of Saigontourist, said that many Russian tourists don’t travel a lot in Vietnam. They prefer to go to resorts and are willing to pay for high-class services.

According to Loc, Russian tourists often request high-class services, from accommodations to food, vehicles, etc. Their spending is always much higher than tourists from other countries.

Andrey Matveev, Director of Top Tour, one of the top ten travel firms in Russia, said that with high economic growth in Russia in recent years, many Russian people have extremely high income. The demand for overseas travel is abundant and they are willing to pay. Many Russian tourists came to Vietnam on leased flights and they hired helicopters to visit Ha Long Bay.

Khlyakhovoy Andrey, Chair of the Far East Bank, who led a group of 170 Russian tourists who came to Vietnam on a leased flight, said that if Vietnam boosts advertisement in Russia, he was sure that many Russia would go to Vietnam.

On a flight from Phu Quoc Island in Kien Giang province back to HCM City, Valentin Andreev, a businessman from Novosibirsk city, said that the one unsatisfactory thing of his family vacation in Phu Quoc was “There is nothing to spend money for” and his family planned to spend a lot of money in their tour.

In Mui Ne (Binh Thuan province), which annually attracts more than 50,000 Russian visitors, many  mui ne resort are built to serve Russian only. However, they lack staff who can speak Russian. There is only one licensed tour guide who speaks Russian in Binh Thuan.

Russia is among 15 key markets of the Vietnam tourism industry. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) aims to attract 350,000 Russian visitors in 2015, equivalent to the market for French tourists.

Since late 2008, Russian visitors have been exempt from visa to Vietnam. Last year Vietnam welcomed 100,000 Russian tourists.