Randir Brar, a representative from travel agency Destinos India, told VnExpress International that the number of Indian visitors to Vietnam could see a big surge following the launch of direct flights.

“The direct air routes will help cut traveling time between the two countries from 15 to six hours, making it easier for more Indians to travel to Vietnam and contribute to bilateral tourism,” he added.

India, with the second largest population in the world only after China, is considered one of the most promising tourism markets. Every year, around 25 million Indian tourists travel abroad and the figure has been rising in recent years, according to India’s tourism ministry.

However, the number of Indian tourist arrivals to Vietnam remains modest compared to other Asian countries like China and South Korea. Just 130,000 Indians visited Vietnam in 2018, while neighboring Thailand received 1.5 million. China and South Korea remain Vietnam’s top feeder markets with 4.9 million and 3.4 million visitors last year respectively.

Currently, flights from Vietnam to India and vice versa have to transit in other countries. Vietnamese Ambassador to India, Pham Sanh Chau, said the long flight time, inconvenient flight routes and expensive travel costs are the main reasons for fewer Indian tourists traveling to Vietnam.

Chau said that the upcoming launch of direct flights was a great opportunity to promote bilateral tourism cooperation in the context of Vietnam looking for ways to diversify its tourism markets to reduce dependence on Chinese tourists.

Indian budget carrier Indigo plans to launch the first direct flights between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to the eastern Indian city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) on October 3 and 18 respectively.

Meanwhile, Vietjet Air will become the first Vietnamese airline to launch direct air links with India. This carrier’s Ho Chi Minh City-New Delhi route is set to open on December 6, with four flights a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while the Hanoi-New Delhi route will operate from December 7 onwards with three flights a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Vietnam first allowed foreign tourists to apply for a visa online in February 2017, starting with 40 countries including China, South Korea and the U.S. In December that year, six countries were added to the list, including India and Australia.

The World Tourism Organization has forecast that the number of Indian tourists going abroad will reach about 50 million by 2020, making India an attractive tourism market that many countries aim to invest in, including Vietnam.

India has become a leading travel choice of Vietnamese tourists in recent years. Last year, the number of Vietnamese visiting India was more than 31,000, up 32 percent from a year ago.

India, known for the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO heritage site and one of the world’s seven wonders, is also home to famous Buddhist temples, including the place where the Buddha became enlightened, making it a favored spiritual destination for many Vietnamese. India is also a leading destination for cultural and healthcare tours.

Ibnu Hadi, Indonesian ambassador to Vietnam, said strengthening connectivity would be an ‘important factor’ in increasing the number of visitors from Vietnam to Indonesia and vice versa.

Indonesian news agency Antara quoted him as saying Indonesia was encouraging the opening of more direct air routes connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s two biggest metropolises, with Jakarta.

In addition, there should be charter flights from Jakarta and Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, to the central coastal city of Da Nang, he said.

Indonesia has been one of the destinations benefiting as increasing numbers of the rising middle class in Vietnam travel abroad for holidays.

The number of Vietnamese tourists to Indonesia last year reached 75,682, while 87,941 Indonesian tourists visited Vietnam, according to the Vietnam National Administration. Last year, 8.6 million Vietnamese people traveled abroad, up 15 percent from a year ago.

In the first seven months of this year, Indonesia, home to Bali, one of the most famous island destinations in Southeast Asia, received 53,000 visitors from Vietnam, up 18 percent year-on-year, Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism data shows. For 2019, Indonesia has set a target of 20 million foreign tourist arrivals, compared to 15.81 million in 2018.

In order to reach the target of welcoming 123,000 Vietnamese tourists set by the Indonesian tourism ministry, the country’s embassy in Hanoi has launched various activities, including participation in the International East-West Economic Corridor Trade and Tourism Fair and the Tourism and Investment Fair 2019 in Da Nang, as well as the “Bali and Beyond” tourism promotion in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, has announced the launch of a direct flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the resort island of Bali from October 27 onwards. Low-cost carrier Vietjet Air had launched a direct Saigon-Bali route since last April.

A recent report by Agoda, the world’s leading online accommodation reservations provider, said growing affluence has spurred Vietnamese holiday-goers to spend more on foreign jaunts, and Southeast Asia nations were heavily favored destinations.

The country’s tourism industry is moving in the right direction, and its 2018 visitor numbers rose at one of the fastest rates in the world, the 2019 Tourism Highlight report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) early this week said.

“In Southeast Asia, most destinations posted strong growth, particularly Vietnam. Outbound tourism from China and India fuelled growth in many destinations in the region.”

Vietnam’s foreign visitor numbers rose 19.9 percent to a record 15 million last year, putting it 10th in the list of fastest growers, which was topped by Ecuador with 51 percent. Iran was second with 49.9 percent and Egypt, third with 36.8 percent.

The rest of the top 10 were Uganda (31.9 percent), Comoros (28.2 percent), Nepal (24.8 percent), Slovenia (23.4 percent), Turkey (21.7 percent), and Palestine (20.5 percent).

The report said France was the most visited country in 2018 with 89 million, followed by Spain and the U.S.

Thailand remained the region’s largest destination attracting around 38.2 million foreign arrivals.

The Asia-Pacific region had the second highest market share of 25 percent after Europe’s 51 percent. The Americas were third with 15 percent.

In the Asia-Pacific, growth was significant in Southeast and South Asia. Southeast Asia received 128.7 million visitors, a 7.8 percent increase, the highest rate in Asia.

“Growth in international tourist arrivals and receipts continues to outpace the world economy and both emerging and advanced economies are benefiting from rising tourism income,” said Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary general of the UNWTO.

Tourism last year contributed 8.39 percent to Vietnam’s GDP. The government seeks to make the industry an economic spearhead.

With visa waivers for several countries in Asia and Europe, the government expected to see around 20 million foreign visitors in 2020 and earn $35 billion in annual revenues by then, equivalent to 10 percent of GDP, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Vietnam will become a leading travel destination in the next five years, the latest Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts report released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association said.

From January to June, Chinese arrivals to Vietnam were nearly 2.5 million, down 3.3 percent year-on-year. Despite the slight decrease, China topped the list of foreign tourists, followed by South Korea with 2.1 million arrivals.

The drop of Chinese tourists has affected the total number of international visitors to Vietnam during the period, with growth seeing a lower increase than in previous years.

Foreign tourists in Vietnam in the six-month period this year were 8.5 million, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. The growth in the same period last year was 27.2 percent. Seventy percent of visitors arrived by air.

A Bloomberg report said Chinese tourists have a big impact on Vietnam’s economy. It said a 30 percent increase in spending by Chinese tourists would boost Vietnam’s economic growth by nearly 1 percentage point. For Thailand, that would be around 1.6 percentage points.

“Chinese tourism is pretty big for ASEAN now, and all the countries rely on Chinese visitors to keep coming and keep spending,” Edward Lee, an economist with Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, was quoted as saying in the report.

Survey results released last year by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, show the average daily spending by a Chinese visitor in Vietnam increased from $118.6 in 2014 to $130 last year. This was below what Chinese visitors spent in Thailand ($180), Indonesia ($183) and Singapore ($446).

Chinese tourists on the waters in front of Ban Gioc waterfalls in Cao Bang Province. Photo by AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam.

Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the country has been doing more to boost tourism promotion in China, the largest source market for Vietnam. Most countries around the world are paying a lot of attention to attracting tourists from the Chinese market, he added.

Since 2012, tourists from China have been the world’s top spender in international tourism, leading global outbound travel, South China Morning Post reported. CLSA, a Hong Kong brokerage and investment firm, predicted that more than 200 million Chinese tourists are expected to make outbound trips in 2020; and Vietnam stands to benefit, too.

Many direct flights connecting major Vietnamese major cities with China have been launched over the past years to cater to growing demand.

Chinese visitors have also been encouraged by a new policy that allows groups to visit the border province of Quang Ninh in northern Vietnam, home to the popular Ha Long Bay, for up to three days without a visa.

The Vietnamese government has also allowed Chinese nationals to apply for 30-day single-entry electronic visas for holidays and business trips.

Boom from Asia

More than 150,000 Thai nationals arrived in Vietnam in the first half of this year, posting the highest national demographic growth of 45.4 percent year-on-year, followed by Taiwan (27 percent), Indonesia (21.9 percent), South Korea (21.3 percent), the Philippines (25 percent) and Japan (12.8 percent).

The recent launch of direct flights connecting Vietnam’s top tourist destinations like Da Nang, Nha Trang and Da Lat with Thailand’s tourism hubs has pushed this growth, market observers say.

Earlier this year, Bangkok Airways opened a direct route from Bangkok to Cam Ranh, an hour south of its much busier sister Nha Trang Town in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

Vietnam’s tourism revenue in the first six months of the year is estimated at VND338.2 trillion ($14.5 billion), up 8.4 percent year-on-year.

While Vietnam is the midst of a tourism boom with a record high 15.5 million foreign arrivals in 2018, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, the numbers have remained lower than that of neighboring countries in the region. Thailand (38 million), Malaysia (25 million) and Singapore (18.5 million) remain far ahead of Vietnam.

At a National Assembly session last year Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said the country needs to stop relying on crude oil and focus on tourism to sustain its economic growth. “It’s better to get one million tourists than try to find one million tons of crude oil because tourism is more eco-friendly and safe for the economy,” he said.

Many travel agencies have said that Vietnam should further relax its visa policies and simplify procedures to attract high spending tourists from Japan, North America, Northern Europe, China and South Korea. They have called for the current 15-day visa exemption extended to 30 days.

A video captures the bustling Bui Vien Street in HCMC, one of Vietnam’s most popular hangouts for foreign tourists.