Vietnam’s hospitality and tourism talent gap

The overseas ownership of Vietnam was back in the headlines this past week with the release of a tourism report showing that the industry is finally seeing a glimmer of hope.

“For nearly any product you can think of, there is a market in Vietnam,” said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh in reference to the report and tourism is no different.

Khanh said business travel has slowly begun to pick up and travel agents report that tourists are now booking Vietnam vacations for the early part of next year. Still missing though is any sign of a full recovery in the profitable ‘group tour’ business.

Maybe the best solution is to attract more foreign investment and allow 100% foreign ownership of businesses in the tourism industry Khanh said, adding that Overseas Vietnamese (OVs) are also a potent resource.

Today, thousands of OVs are returning to the homeland and they bring with them sophisticated tastes and an appetite for the kinds of goods and services they grew accustomed to while in the US, Canada and other foreign nations.

Their return is proving to be an incredibly stabilizing force for the national economy and many of them are highly educated and savvy business owners with good interpersonal and leadership skills.

Most importantly, Khanh said “they understand how market economies work” and they can speak foreign languages such as English, Japanese, French and German fluently.

He stressed it is absolutely essential for those who work in the hospitality and tourism industry to be proficient in a foreign language as it is a prerequisite for intercultural competence.

Perhaps most critically, foreigners and OVs form a true middle class with expendable income to buy the goods and services to which they’d become accustomed in foreign countries.

Vietnam has one of the fastest real GDP growth rates in Asia and the government has been implementing structural reforms and maintaining overall monetary stability while keeping inflation in check.

He said the nation is set to benefit from rapid and sustained economic growth over the years to come, much of which growth it has encouraged with the passage of laws specifically designed to attract and protect foreign investors.

The government’s aim is to develop the hospitality and tourism industry and make it a significant segment of the nation’s economy but to achieve this goal, the construction of more hotels and convention centres are needed.

More foreign investment is also needed to provide more transportation services, build more recreation and entertainment outlets, and improve tourism services to compete internationally.

In addition, Khanh stressed more highly qualified entry-level and skilled workers in the hospitality and tourism industry are needed, which requires improving vocational training and enhancing the hospitality curriculum.

Hanoitourist Director Luu Duc Ke agrees and says allowing 100% foreign-owned companies in the hospitality and tourism industry and bringing in more foreign management and other workers may be just the ticket to success.

In the long run it will be good as it forces domestic companies to improve their competitiveness and it will bring significant advantages as they gain more valuable business experience and improve their skillsets over the years to come.

“It presents a great opportunity but also requires domestic companies to improve their capacity to catch up with more developed nations,” said Ke.

Ke underscored that if we continue to stick to what we are currently doing, the human resource challenges will ultimately lead to the failure of Vietnam’s tourism industry.

VOV