Hospitality businesses in Vietnam to serve over 6 million tourists

Hospitality businesses in Vietnam to serve over 6 million tourists

Statistics from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) have revealed a 14% annual growth in international visitors to the country. In November alone, around 656,000 tourists visited Vietnam, bringing the total amount of international arrivals in the first 11 months of 2012 to 6,035,901^(*). The question now is, are hospitality businesses up for the game?

More tourists mean more profit-making opportunities which everyone will be eyeing. Hospitality businesses, especially hotels, are set for intense competition not only to outrun their counterparts but also to excel themselves. In our opinion, Vietnamese hospitality businesses should incorporate a new set of competitive criteria, which is discussed below:

Agility

These days, change has become the new normal. Although Vietnam has a relatively stable socio-economic landscape, globalisation means that the country is not exempt from volatility in markets around the world. For hospitality businesses, change could mean:

• New expansion plans, whether of competitors or their own mother companies
• New demands from customers for new features, facilities etc.
• New regulations from industry regulatory bodies
• New customer profiles
• New trends in technology and social communications

Adapting to change on-the-go without causing too much upheaval has never been more important. Hospitality businesses need to know what they have at hand, how an investment would affect the numbers, how to distribute the figures in order to maximise revenues and what statistics can tell them about the future.

Effectiveness

In hospitality management, speed needs to come with quality too. There is no point in being the first by rushing without getting things right. To really stay ahead of the competition, businesses need to stay on top of all the little details that make their assets run efficiently and ensure a positive guest experience. That means being able to go to one system for all their data needs, where hospitality businesses can view and take action from anywhere, and at any time. That also means counting on accurate, consistent and real-time data.

Innovation

Utilising technology effectively can yield great return on investment. What if businesses can:

• Access their performance and financial data from mobile devices any time
• Receive automatic alerts when there are actions to be taken
• Gain insights by looking at data from multiple perspectives and formats
• Free up time from manual work to focus on delivering value to customers
• Develop growth plans without worrying about disruptions

The business software market in Vietnam has become more vibrant in recent years, with choices offered by both domestic and foreign brands. For hospitality, businesses are best advised to go for specialised hospitality/hotel management software rather than generic solutions.

Conclusion

Vietnam is still 500,000 international visitors short of the target set by VNAT, which is feasible given there is 1 month before the end of 2012. Nonetheless, hospitality businesses need to aim for operational excellence to not only attract more visitors but also deliver the quality they expect. The competitive criteria outlined in this post can help organisations know what they are missing.

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 ^(*) Stated by Dao Loan in the “Over 6 million int’l tourists visit Vietnam” article posted on The Saigon Times Daily on Wednesday, November 28^th, 2012