Making Hanoi more International

Sometime ago, one of my teachers from Bangkok came to Hanoi on an academic seminar. After the work was done, he spent a few days in Hanoi. I took him to Van Mieu temple, Ho Chi Minh museum, Ho Tay, and of course Ho Guom and Ngoc Son Temple.

Thank God that he had only 2 days to spend in Hanoi. If he had spent a few more days I would have been in trouble, knowing of nowhere else to take him.

 

Hanoi cuisine is also a point to mention. In my opinion, wherever I go – eating local food is not only my preference, but also a way of understanding local culture. I took him for almost every famous Hanoi food; surprisingly he was most impressed by “Bun Cha”.

 

However, after several years in Thailand I realize that “Bun Cha” is pure Vietnamese food, its taste, its smell is strongly Vietnamese. “Pho” is the most well known Vietnamese food to foreigners, but it is quite similar to Thai noodles.

 

Lacking services for foreigner
A friend of mine from Indonesia came to Hanoi for studying Vietnamese for two years. After a few weeks, he found life very difficult. There are no Islamic foods available and public transportation was another difficult issue. He had to cook for himself and found it difficult to find food meeting his religious eating requirements. And he had to walk a kilometre to get to a very crowded bus.

 

Hanoi is famous for its hospitality. But now, it needs to be a more modern and friendly environment for tourists. It needs streets signs and names in English. It needs better public transportation. It needs fewer restrictions on guesthouses for foreigners to reduce their staying costs. And the foods it offers to the world needed to be more diversified too.

 

Korean visitors to Hanoi have increased significantly. Korean tourists to Hanoi now rank second, only after China. Korean tourist agencies have found that Hanoi needs more services to serve their customers. They came to Hanoi to build Korean restaurants. They came to Hanoi to develop centres including shops, a Water Puppet Theater, etc for their guests. We are now losing the market in our home.

 

Not only Koreans, the Taiwanese also found that Hanoi lacks many services. They also came to Hanoi to build centres to serve the guest’s needs. It is somehow a complete circle; their customers came to Hanoi but they still used services brought from their homeland.

 

It is a wonder that tours to Thailand are so cheap. 3 nights, 4 days from Hanoi to Bangkok and Pataya costs around $200 Dollars, including the return air tickets. For the same tour, in Vietnam they could provide only the inbound services. This is because the Thai Government supports their tourist agencies, they understand that one tourist coming to Thailand not only spends $200 on the tour, but also spends thousands of dollars on services and goods. Later on, tax revenues would easily cover the costs for giving privileges to Tourist Agencies.

 

In Vietnam, it is a different story. On average, a guest from the USA, staying in Hanoi, spends around $100 a day. This is a very small figure. This is not because that they do not want to spend money, but because there are limited services and goods available. Tourists to Hanoi or Saigon have to go to bed early. Of course, they do not come to our country to sleep!

 

People travel for various reasons. Some go to seek opportunities; a job or investment. Some travel to discover a new land, adventure and culture. Most travel for fun and shopping. Sadly, Hanoi lacks services in all areas.

 

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, in the first 8 months of 2007, 2.8 million foreign travellers came to Vietnam, increasing 104 per cent from the same period last year. 1.7 million of these were tourists. Unfortunately, 70 per cent of tourists never come back. There are a lot of reasons given for this, but one of the most significant is that there are not enough services available, especially nightlife.

 

A need for a comprehensive plan
Beside many programs to promote Vietnam Tourism, Hanoi and Vietnam in general need to improve their tourism infrastructure. This includes public transportation, hotels, restaurants and entertainment complexes. The requirement that all the entertainment activities must close before midnight has proved ineffective in dealing with social evils, while it is an obstacle to developing the high return tourist industry. Such requirements should be reconsidered. There is still a lot to be done to make charming, old Hanoi a more friendly environment for tourists.
Van Chien