As travel picks back up in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, Intrepid Travel Vietnam welcomes the rising tide of returning tourists – while acknowledging the “growing pains” involved in adapting to a new, post-pandemic world of travel.
“We face challenges in meeting customers’ needs due to the nature of post-pandemic travel, with its shorter time and more complex requirements,” explains Hanh Nguyen, General Manager of Intrepid Travel Vietnam. The experienced travel operator also contends with heightened expectations on sustainability and community-based tourism, which Intrepid Travel has helped to pioneer in the country.
In a candid interview, we asked Mr. Hanh to tell us about how Intrepid Travel Vietnam is negotiating the current challenging tourism landscape, and how the company faces these challenges without compromising its unwavering commitment to sustainable tourism.
How is the tourism situation like in Vietnam – now that tourism has reopened, is Intrepid feeling any “growing pains” dealing with the influx of tourists?
The tourism in Vietnam has progressed positively over the past eight months. There’s strong recovery in a number of sectors, including hospitality, domestic transport and tourism services that are boosted by continued support by the government – including (but not limited to) its effective visa policy and a reduced value added tax policy.
At Intrepid Travel Vietnam, we have welcomed large numbers of inbound travelers over the past five months. But with regard to ongoing operations and supply chain concerns, we face challenges in meeting customers’ needs due to the nature of post-pandemic travel, with its shorter time and more complex requirements.
In addition, air capacity to Southeast Asian countries is still limited, which could impact the overall decision to travel to Vietnam.
Image courtesy of the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism
What are the latest efforts being done by Intrepid Travel to promote sustainable tourism in Vietnam?
At Intrepid Travel, promoting sustainable tourism is one of our top priorities, in line with our purpose. This has been implemented from the global level to the local grassroots.
In Viet Nam, Intrepid actively participates in government and non-profit organization programs in promoting sustainability efforts.
It includes our weekly volunteer works to The Intrepid Foundation (TIF)’s partners – Vun Art, WildAct, and Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation where our Intrepid staff lead mentoring programs and sharing sessions with the disadvantaged and underprivileged youths.
We continue to work with our partners in Mang Den, KonPlong District, KonTum Province (in the central highlands of Viet Nam) to plant more trees to counteract the land erosion and deforestation in this area.
We are also working to introduce “flight-light” itineraries in consideration of more sustainable ways of travel, given the country’s challenging situation in public transportation system.
Image courtesy of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism
How has Intrepid Travel been able to “walk the talk” on sustainability? How are sustainability principles applied specifically to the Viet Nam office?
Intrepid Travel Vietnam is on a journey to becoming a sustainability leader in the country, not simply stopping at “the talk”. Instead, we prioritize our workflows to close the gaps between theory and implementation.
Intrepid Travel Vietnam is in line with global sustainability guidance in our commitment to demonstrate high social and environmental performance; being accountable to all stakeholders to our business (including but not limited to our people, customers, suppliers, contractors, etc..); and exhibiting the transparency in all aspects of the business.
We are proud of being certified as a B-Corp business in Vietnam, as it validates our responsible business practices; these journeys continue to transform over time, and apply to everything we do both on the global and local levels.
What is the state of travel infrastructure in Vietnam now? How has it improved over the past few years, and what improvements need to be done still?
Although there has been a significant improvement over the past years to the travel infrastructure in Vietnam, we observe an imbalance of travel infrastructure.
Vietnam is improving in aviation, with frequent domestic flight routes in competitive airfares; but there is limited means of public transportation (to name, sky train, metros, public buses) to connect inner city and intercity. This imbalance is a challenge for sustainable trip planning.
It would be great to see more investment in public transportation such as bullet trains, more metro lines and more public buses, which will create more travel options and generate more favorable conditions for the tourism industry to align with sustainability goals.
What community-based tourism initiatives are showing the most promise in Vietnam?
Community-based tourism (CBT) initiatives are very popular across the country. In our opinion, the most promising CBT initiatives are driven by the local ethnic people, and contribute to the fair development of the local community in preserving their ethic colors, identity, culture, while promoting a healthy sustainable income for the family as well as supporting the future generations of education.
In the context of Intrepid Travel, we are proud to work and develop the partnership with Da Bac CBT from 2017 to date. And the impact is significant amongst not only the CBT in Da Bac itself, but it helps to set the standard for other CBT to follow and refer to their operations.
Image courtesy of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism
What other tourism destinations in Vietnam do you feel are “hidden gems” that should be visited more by foreign tourists?
In my opinion, there is so much potential to visit the “hidden gems” of the country.
I would like to name Tay Giang District (Quang Nam province), which is only few hours drive away from Da Nang international airport and a reachable distance from Hoi an Ancient Town. In Tay Giang, the color of Co Tu ethnic group is well preserved with community bonding via daily ways of life and spiritual ceremonies in a harmonious combination with the lush green forests and vegetation.
Image courtesy of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism
Image by dietmarlaschinski from Pixabay
Phong Nha National Park and its amazing cave system of Vietnam will be more in demand in the next two or three years. The lush green forest of Phong Nha National Park encourages people to get connected with nature and explore the various caving experiences, while still feeling not too challenging. I had been lucky to travel to Phong Nha lately on three days, two nights caving experiences and it was simply amazing!
Can you tell us about overtourism in Viet Nam, and what Intrepid Travel is doing to address this?
Having witnessed a number of destinations getting “too popular” like Sapa, Ha Long Bay, etc., Intrepid Travel Vietnam has been very mindful of possible impacts that overtourism may cause to the overall customer experience, and we’re adjusting to minimize its negative impact to trip operations. We reroute our trips from “overtouristed spots” to lesser known ones, still keeping the iconic sights while offering lesser known feelings and immersive experiences.
For example, we still take people to Sapa but instead of staying at the main township, we encourage our travelers to stay at an ecolodge and homestays where authentic experiences are introduced, and this decision is well received and welcomed by our customers.
The exercise has also been in line with our consultation with relevant government bodies at local and central levels, which initiate good discussions on the management side as well as learnings from our industry partners.
Image courtesy of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism
In your opinion, what should Vietnam tourism stakeholders do to develop their “hidden” tourist destinations, to divert tourism away from hotspots like Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, etc.?
In our opinion, keeping the classic “Five Hs” hotspots (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City) is vital for first-time travelers looking for a snapshot of the country in a short timeframe. However, developing unique and wow experiences in lesser-known destinations will have a powerful impact on the returning customer rate for the country.
Therefore, we exercise continued monitoring to watch out for the classic destination performance, and research the potential destinations that match clients’ ever-changing needs and wants.
The next couple of years are going to be very important for travel in Vietnam. Do you have any prediction on how Vietnamese sustainable travel will develop in the next two or three years?
It is not easy to predict the future, but I hold strong — hope that Vietnam will continue to be on the world top 10 destination to travel with not only great landscape, people, culture, food but also green initiatives and sustainability projects.
I believe that in the next two or three years, Vietnam tour operators will stay more mindful of the impacts from sustainability, and also take relevant actions on the addressing the three pillars of sustainable tourism: People, Planet and Profit.
Hopefully the industry can find the right balance in promoting sustainability in line with gaining business profits.
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