Vietnam Vying For Muslim Travellers

HO CHI MINH CITY, More Muslim travellers from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and the Middle East are visiting Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism deputy director, La Quoc Khanh, said that the number of tourists from Muslim countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, has gone up considerably in recent years.

Most Indonesian and Malaysian tourism firms have said that tourists visit Vietnam because the country offers affordable tours and commodity prices that fit their budget.

Many carriers from the Middle East – including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines – have opened direct routes to Vietnam, helping to raise the number of Muslim tourist arrivals to the Southeast Asian nation.

Muslim tourists are now a major target for Vietnam which are more than 972 million Muslims residents in its immediate neighborhood, Asia Pacific alone. However, it wants to attract, especially, wealthy Muslim travelers from Oil-rich GCC countries.

Vietnam has some distance to cover to bring its restaurants and hotels up to speed on providing Halal food and gaining a better understanding of what constitutes a Muslim-friendly travel environment. It has to upgrade its infrastructure plus it has to provide more Muslim-friendly amenities to attract more and more Muslim visitors in the near future.