Central Vietnam fails to adapt as S.Korean tourism soars TUOITRENEWS South Korean tourists are seen at Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue June 14, 2013. Tuoi Tre With the number of South Korean arrivals in the central part of Vietnam unexpectedly rising recently, tourism agencies in these provinces have failed to adequately prepare in terms of personnel and policy to embrace this new wave of tourists. Prior to 2010, only a modest number of South Korean tourists spent their holidays in the central part of Vietnam, but the Northeast Asian nation is now in the list of top ten countries with the largest number of arrivals in these provinces, mostly Hue, Da Nang, and Quang Nam. Recent figures show that the number of South Korean arrivals to Hue jumped from only 4,600 in 2010 to as high as 24,000 last year. Similarly, only 3,838 South Korean holidaymakers visited Hoi An in 2010, but the figure nearly doubled to 6,868 only two years later. Most remarkably, Da Nang last year saw its South Korean tourist arrivals rise 4.6 times from 6,620 in 2010 to 30,493. In the first half of this year alone, 25,511 tourists from South Korea have visited the coastal city. Tran Chi Cuong, deputy director of the Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said the impressive growth is largely due to the increase in flights between the city and Seoul. South Korean carriers Asiana Airlines and Korean Air are each offering one daily flight between the two cities, while flag-carrier Vietnam Airlines has also been flying on the same air route three times a week since July 1. “With these services, the number of South Korean tourists to Da Nang will continue to soar,” Cuong commented. Le Duy Phung, the only tour guide who speaks Korean in Hue, said the clean, warm and beautiful beaches along the central part of the country are most attractive to the Korean tourists. The salty and spicy foods of the central provinces also suit the tastes of the tourists, he added. “Korean tourists always choose three to five-star hotels for accommodation and are willing to pay for deluxe services as well as shopping,” he said. Challenges Even though all of the aforementioned factors pose a huge chance for the tourism industry of the central provinces to embrace, they are in fact not ready for this unexpected windfall of arrivals. Truong Thanh Minh, a chief official from Hue’s tourism department, said the South Korean travel agencies tend to organize the Vietnamese tours on their own, instead of partnering with a local travel firm. “They are in charge of everything, from planning the tour program and choosing relevant service providers to assigning tour guides,” he said. A director of a travel company in Da Nang said the South Korean side has set up a representative in the city only to fulfill legal requirement, while the facility has no real role in organizing tours. With the number of Korean-speaking tour guides in short supply, South Korean tour organizers usually hire Vietnamese-speaking guides only to avoid penalties by the tourism inspectorate, as their Korean nationals will be in charge of the task. Phung, the Korean-speaking tour guide in Hue, said relevant agencies should tighten their monitoring of the operations of the Korean travel firms in Vietnam. “In the long term, we should have an adequate supply of Korean-speaking tour guides to better exploit this chance,” he suggested.