WAVBC Vietnam Tourism Guidebooks
Hoi An at Night
Over the years since its incorporation one of the biggest challenges for the WAVBC has been to encourage West Australians just to visit Vietnam. Initially there were no direct flights from Perth but in recent years direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City have become a reality and Vietnam is now just over six hours away.
As South East Asia tourism continues to recover from the Covid era its pleasing to hear that Vietnam’s recovery rate is one of the highest in South East Asia and is fast gaining a global reputation as a leading destination in the region. The Vietnam tourism boom can be attributed to several key factors that includes new visa policies, expanded air connectivity, new tourism infrastructures and developments opening and an increased focus on promoting regional tourism experiences.
The Vietnam economy continues to perform well and continues to attract a high level of foreign investment from the USA, Japan and European Union member countries. Unfortunately, Australia is not a significant investor in Vietnam, but many partnership opportunities now exist in Vietnam for both large and small Australian businesses.
The WAVBC continues to be proactive in finding ways to introduce and connect both West Australian and Vietnamese businesses and we see our ‘Tourism Guidebook’ initiative as an opportunity to encourage West Australians from all walks of life to consider visiting Vietnam, a safe, affordable and culturally rich destination.
After visiting Vietnam, we are hoping some business owners may be interested in connecting their business with a like-minded business in Vietnam or they will just return with family or friends to explore other regions of Vietnam.
WAVBC Tourist Information Guidebook No 1
Ho Chi Minh City - Coastal Region
It’s taken a bit longer than anticipated but we have finally finished the first WAVBC Tourism Information Guide for Vietnam – the 16-page guidebook covers the Ho Chi Minh City – Coastal Region a new region, following the recent provincial changes that now includes all the districts of the previous Ba Ria Vung Tau Province. The general concept of the guidebook is to provide useful information (ie: flights, hotels, transfers, tours) for first time visitors to Vietnam.
The recent restructuring of the Vietnam Provinces (63 to 34) certainly made everything more challenging as we were initially focussed on Ba Ria Vung Tau Province which along with Binh Duong is now under the Ho Chi Minh City Region jurisdiction – a combination that is estimated to deliver 42% of Vietnam’s GDP in the near future. Now Ho Chi Minh City has its own coastal region which will be well serviced by the new Long Thanh international airport opening next year.
We thank Vietnam Airlines for supporting our first guidebook which will be distributed throughout the West Australian FIFO networks in the coming months. Now we have the format for our guidebook there are now plans to create more tourist information guidebooks for other regional tourism experiences in Vietnam.
