How to avoid mass tourism and give tourists a responsible and unique experience

Transcription

1 How to avoid mass tourism and give tourists a responsible and unique experience 1

2 Table of contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Unique experiences versus mass tourism 5 Travelling responsible 6 Conclusion 7 2

3 Executive Summary The tourism industry keeps on growing and the tourist arrivals are increasing each year. In Vietnam the growth of international tourist arrivals was 26% in 2016, resulting in over 10 million visitors The millennials are the new group of tourists that set the trends nowadays. The following two big trends occurred over the last few years: - The millennials want a unique experience when travelling and get away from the masses. - The millennials want to travel as responsible as possible. Footprint Travel Vietnam has found a way to offer unique trips in Vietnam, by going off the beaten track and involving many local communities and accommodations in their trips. The highlights of Vietnam are still being visited during their trips, but in a different and innovative way. Furthermore, Footprint Travel Vietnam has invested a lot of time and effort in providing the tourists with a responsible trip. They support different projects that help developing responsible travel, involve local communities and educate the people in these communities and gained the Travelife certificate. This results in unique and responsible trips to offer to their clients and will give them a head start on the competition in the future. 3

4 Introduction Travelling becomes more and more popular and the tourist arrivals keep on increasing every year. In Vietnam, the tourism industry is increasing even more rapidly, when you look at the numbers. With the increase of the tourism industry, there is more money to be made for everyone. This has resulted in many tour operators starting up new businesses and accommodations are being developed in record time. At the same time the new big group of tourists, the millennials, seek a unique experience and no mass tourism. This is a contradiction that the travel world must deal with now. In this paper, we will discuss the problem in Vietnam and how Footprint Travel Vietnam deals with this. Another issue that the travel world has encountered, is the awareness of the impact that travelling has on the environment and the destinations. New trends have arisen over the past decade on how to travel more responsible. This paper will give an insight into the trend of travelling responsible and how Footprint Travel Vietnam implements these trends into the trips they offer. 4

5 Unique Experiences Versus Mass Tourism In 2016, international tourist arrivals increased by 3,9% and hereby reached the billion international arrivals. In Vietnam, the international tourist arrivals increased even more, with a 26% increase in 2016 and reached over 10 million international visitors. Add the domestic tourists to this number and you have about 10,1 million visitors per year. These visitors result in nearly 14.9 billion USD in tourism receipts. It is not a surprise that the Vietnamese people want to profit from this. This has resulted in a lot of new businesses in tourism. Many tour operators started their business and even more accommodations opened their doors over the last few years. The tour operators offer mostly the same destinations and packages to the tourists because this is what the tourists want to see and do. Most tourists will not leave Vietnam before they have seen highlights like Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, Sa Pa and so on. This causes overcrowded places and mass tourism at the main highlights of Vietnam. Ha Long Bay Sapa A contradiction to the fact that tourists want to see the highlights of a country, is that the new tourists, the millennials, want to have a unique experience during their holiday. Millennials want to experience the local culture and learn how that culture works. They also want to discover new places and feel like they are away from the main crowd to really experience the country and the culture they are visiting. Millennials are willing to pay good money for these experiences. However, offering a unique experience is a challenge when everyone wants to see the same destinations and highlights. Furthermore, the use of Social Media influences the tourism industry as well. This makes it even harder to offer unique experiences because once a destination is shared on Social Media, the crowd will discover it and visit the destination. Certainly, this is beneficial for the destination itself because the increase in visitors will profit the local community. However, for the tourists it means that the destination is losing its uniqueness. So how can you offer a unique experience, but also show the highlights of a country? Footprint Travel Vietnam has found a solution for this. They offer trips that are off the beaten track. The trips that are offered include the highlights of Vietnam, but in a different way. The trips provide opportunities to interact with the local people, staying in homestays and being involved in many local activities. This way the visitors will get to experience the local culture and avoid mass tourism. For the really busy highlights like the city of Hanoi or Ha Long Bay, the trips start either very early in the morning, when there is no one on the streets yet, or the 5

6 trips are visiting unique sites that are not offered by other tour operators. By offering these trips in this unique way, Footprint Travel Vietnam is responding to the demand of the millennials to offer unique experiences and experience the local culture of Vietnam, while avoiding the masses. Pu Luong Ha Giang 6

7 Travel Responsibly Another trend that has developed itself over the past few years is to travel responsibly. Millennials are more aware of the impacts travelling has on the economy, environment and social aspects. That is why one of the latest trends is to travel as sustainable as possible. The UNWTO even appointed the year of 2017 The International Year of Sustainable Tourism by the UN. Millennials are considering the environment more, since they are the generation that needs to preserve the environment for the next generation. Many new projects are being developed to offer more sustainable tourism to tourists. These projects are based on protecting the environment, the social aspects of a destination or the local economy. Examples of these projects are community-based tourism projects, CO2 emission compensation projects and clean drinking water development projects. In the coming few years, tourists will book trips more likely with companies that are involved or support such projects. Although the trend of responsible travel is upcoming, tourists are also hesitant about the sustainable trips. This is because the word sustainable is associated with more expensive trips. This is why Footprint Travel Vietnam is supporting different projects but is not promoting this in a big way. The prices of the trips are still compatible, but the trips of Footprint Travel set high priority on being sustainable. The trips highly involve local tour guides, local accommodations and local products. Footprint Travel helps in the training of the local people that work in tourism, which helps the communities adapting to the western tourists that visit Vietnam. Furthermore, they support projects like the refill project, which stimulates local communities and accommodations to supply clean drinking water for tourists to refill their drinking bottle. In 2016, Footprint received the Travelife certificate, which means that they have completed the whole certification process of Travelife. The certification process of Travelife focusses on a sustainable operation in every sense of doing business, starting with the office itself and ending with all the suppliers that are used by the business. This certificate shows that Footprint Travel Vietnam is a sustainable company and this makes the company unique and attractive for the millennials. 7

8 Conclusion Millennials are the new generation of tourists and with that, the new trendsetter in tourism. The two major trends at the moment are that the millennials seek for a unique experience during their travels and they want to travel responsibly. This is a challenge for the tourism industry in Vietnam because the tourist arrivals are increasing rapidly and everyone wants to see the same highlights in Vietnam. Also, many tour operators are opening up new businesses, so how can you stand out? Footprint Travel Vietnam is one of the leading tour operators in Vietnam that offers sustainable and unique trips to tourists. They invest a lot of time in developing responsible trips and searching for the most sustainable accommodations and activities to offer. They work a lot with homestays and community-based tourism projects. Furthermore, they support different projects to help local communities and to preserve the environment. Footprint Travel Vietnam also gained the Travelife certificate as the first tour operator in Vietnam. By working with the checklist of Travelife, Footprint Travel Vietnam is a sustainable company in every sense of the word. Starting with their own office and employees, but also making sure that their suppliers are sustainable. The investments that are made to offer unique and sustainable trips, are not showing in the prices of the trips that Footprint offers. Also, they do not promote the sustainability and the projects they support in a big way. This is because tourists associate the word sustainable, with expensive trips. Footprint Travel Vietnam offers unique trips that are off the beaten track. This matches the demand of the millennials for wanting to experience a unique trip. There are more ways to see the highlights of Vietnam than most people are seeing them now and Footprint Travel Vietnam has found a very innovative way to give this to people. The highlights are still being visited during the trips that they offer, however in a different way and not with the masses that are also seeing the same highlights. Footprint Travel Vietnam keeps on continuing to search for new and undiscovered destinations to offer to their clients, as well as include minority communities in their trips, which benefit the local economy. They educate the local people on how to deal with tourists and give training to drivers and tour guides. To offer trips sustainable and unique meant a lot of investment for Footprint Travel Vietnam, but will give them an advantage over the competition in the future, since this is the demand of the millennials. 8