Cruise tourism target impracticable, warn critics

Vietnam aims to attract one million international cruise tourists per year by 2015, but many believe it to be an unrealistic target.

It is true that the number of international cruise tourists coming to the country is rising sharply, critics say.

In the first 11 months of 2007, 200,000 out of a total 3.8 million foreign tourists traveled to Vietnam by sea.

Saigontourist alone received 40,000, a 159 percent increase over the previous year.

The year also saw other auspicious events for the marine travel industry, including the launch or resumption of several sea tours to the country by a series of cruise operators.

Hong Kong-based Star Cruises Limited resumed its weekly Monday tour to Ha Long Bay in addition to its current tour packages to the southern and central regions.

Other major cruise lines like Costa Croupiers, Silver Sea Cruises and P&O Princess Cruises also jumped on board.

Singapore-based V.Ships (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd.’s chief executive Chui Mun Yew Daniel said his company would have one of its Jupiter ships from Panama anchor at Vietnamese ports on its way to Singapore early next month.

In a recent interview, France-based Fashion TV’s Vice Chairman Uzi Garty said Vietnam had plenty of potential for cruise travel, including a 3,000 km coastline with thousands of beautiful big and small islands.

Besides, the country is located midway between Singapore and Hong Kong, the two Asian transnational ports increasingly seen by international cruise operators as an alternative to less exotic and more expensive destinations in the Caribbean, North America, and Europe.

But…

At a recent international conference on cruise tourism in Ha Long, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh said Vietnam was trying to hit the onemillion target in 2015 and increase the share of sea tourism to 10 percent of overall tourism from 3 to 4 percent now.

Critics say this goal is extremely ambitious considering the modest expectations of other countries in the region.

For instance, according to the ASEAN Cruise Working Group, only around two million foreign tourists are expected to arrive in all Asian ports by 2015.

For the whole of Southeast Asia, at an estimated annual 5 percent growth, the figure is likely to be 820,000 at most.

The critics emphasize that if Vietnam doesn’t do more for cruise travel than what it has being doing since it welcomed the first tourists 10 years ago, it can well forget about the target.

The country is yet to draw up a master plan for developing human resources, infrastructure, marketing, and product and services packages for cruise travel.

Ports, for instance, pose a major barrier — there are no specialized ports for cruise ships (even cargo ports are seriously lacking).

Meanwhile, other countries in the region have gone far in terms of catering to cruise tourists.

China has recently unveiled a new cruise ship port in Shanghai which can handle three large-sized vessels at the same time besides upgrading and expanding its other cruise ship ports.

Vietnam is yet to even have a publication or website to market its seas and beaches, let alone incentives to attract foreign cruise lines.

Neighboring Singapore last year established a US$7 million sea and air travel fund to foster partnerships between local businesses and international cruise lines.

In addition to port shortages, the Vietnamese cruise travel industry also needs many more hotels.

A recent survey found that HCMC, which now has 11,000 rooms, would need twice that number by 2010 to meet foreign tourists’ demand.

In Hanoi, hotels only meet 70 percent of peak season demand.

Due to low supply, experts say room tariffs in Vietnam are expensive compared to most neighboring countries.

Head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT)’s Travel Department, Vu The Binh, said local businesses had been acting on their own to attract cruise operators by diversifying their services and finding attractive destinations.

“But the government has done little to help them.”

But he said this year the government would pitch in to help boost sea travel.

“At least in 2008, we will take part in international cruise ship fairs with local businesses,” he promised.

VNAT said it also planned to adopt a visa waiver for international cruise tourists, and submitted a blue-print to the government on sea and island travel development until 2020.

Source : TBKTSG