Overview of tourism sector
Tourism is one of the three research areas of the project. The objective of the project is to survey and analyze the needs of the labor market for universities in two localities: Hanoi city and Thai Nguyen province. The needs of the labor market are described specifically through the descriptions of activities and skills for each job in two groups of tourism enterprises (hotels, restaurants and agencies tour)
Statistics of Vietnam’s arrivals for the 5 years from 2015 to 2020 show a significant growth rate of international tourists from 11.6% (2015) to 12.9% (2019) and of domestic tourists fluctuating in stable level 11.2% – 11.4%. This rate will only decrease in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Figure 1- Tourists to Vietnam (Source: General Statistic Office and the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism)
Hospitality service has ten times more visitors than those served by travel agencies, reflecting that domestic tourists rarely buy package tours from travel agencies. Instead, most of them organize trips by themselves, planning their means of vehicles, sightseeing activities and hospitality service booking. The number of tourists served by tour agencies is very close to that of international visitors to Vietnam, showing that this service is mainly for international or Vietnamese tourists travelling abroad.
Figure 2- Tourists served by travel agencies and hospitality companies in Vietnam (Source: General Statistic Office and the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism)
As for Hanoi, the number of international arrivals to Hanoi almost coincides with the number of international arrivals to Vietnam in the 2015 – 2020 period. This fact has confirmed the role and position of Hanoi as a destination not to be missed when travelling to Vietnam. However, unlike the data on the national scale, the number of domestic visitors to Hanoi is not different from the number of international visitors, although the growth rate of domestic visitors still reached an impressive number year by year (11.4% in 2016 and 10.8% in 2019). In 2020, Hanoi also recorded a severe decrease of 79% and 61% international and domestic arrivals, respectively.
Figure 3- Tourists to Hanoi (Source: General Statistic Office of Vietnam & Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism)
It can be initially concluded that Hanoi is an attractive destination for international tourists in Vietnam. The growth rate of international and domestic tourists to Hanoi is quite stable, reaching over 10% annually. Hanoi’s target market is Korea, China, Japan from Asia, France, Germany from Europe, the U.S, and Russia.
Overview of research methodology
The research team has selected and applied the following methods: face-to-face interview; telephone interview; CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing) survey.
These methods allow the research team to obtain an extensive database on the current status of the tourism industry, development trends and future career expectations.