Building firmer ties with India

India is the second-most populated country globally, with great opportunities to expand destinations and build on partnerships in Asia and beyond

The tourism industry in both Vietnam and India is hopeful of the launch of direct flights between the two countries in the near future, in order to raise the volume of visitors on both sides.

Sumit Mathur, director of Indian travel agency Top Travel and Tours Ltd., recently visited Vietnam with the hope of finding new partners in the country to hold outbound tours along with strengthening inbound tours. The agency has been taking Vietnamese tourists to India for close to 15 years.

“Indian travel agencies are awaiting direct flights between the two countries, which will enable them to save costs and send more tourists to Vietnam, as well as welcome more Vietnamese visitors to India,” Mathur said.

He told VIR that Vietnam and India both have diversified potential for tourism development. While in India, tourists enjoy spiritual tours, adventures in the Himalayan Mountain Range, and can discover world heritage sites such as the Taj Mahal and Sun Temple, Vietnam is blessed with many beautiful destinations like Halong Bay, Hue, and Danang.

Mathur also has a soft spot for Vietnamese cuisine and underlined its fascination to foreigners. “The colours and flavours of Vietnamese dishes are fantastic. The country has many specialties typical for each region. I love it,” he said.

India itself is home to a diversified culture, with 22 official languages divided into 14 categories. India and Vietnam have been friends for many years, but the peoples of the two nations often know little about each other. India is the birthplace of Buddha, and Buddhism is the largest religion in Vietnam.

“That’s one of the reasons why I would like to be a bridge to connect the people of the two countries,” Mathur said.

Sharing his hopes of being a cultural bridge and also being a partner to the company over the past 10 years, Vietravel plans to take over 20 charter flights to India this year, with a maximum of 175-180 seats per flight. “Previously, we only held pilgrimage tours, but recently we have combined pilgrimages with shopping and sightseeing tours,” said Le Quynh Phuong, vice chief of the Outbound Department at Vietravel.

According to Quynh Phuong, thanks to tour diversification to India, Vietravel has taken many more tourists to the country. However, she still emphasised the attraction of pilgrimages. “Our lives are now very fast and busy, and people need time to slow down. Therefore, pilgrimages often help people get the time off to relax and think,” she added.

With the support of the two companies and many other travel agencies in Vietnam and India, the number of tourist exchanges between the two countries has been continuously increasing.

Venkatesan Dhattareyan, deputy director general at the Indian Ministry of Tourism, told VIR, “Vietnam is a very important market for Indian tourism. In 2017, more than 23,000 Vietnamese people travelled to India, and in 2018 the number was 27,700. Although the number of Indian tourists to Vietnam is not high, India as the second-largest population in the world, will be a huge market for Vietnamese tourism.”

“I believe if direct flights are launched, we will witness a sharp ­increase of tourists from both sides,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Quy Phuong, head of the Travel Management Department at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that Vietnamese tourism enterprises have prepared to welcome Indian tourists for several years now. “Many Indian restaurants have been opened in big cities, and travel agencies have held inbound tours with a steady increase of tourists year on-year,” he said.

However, currently, there are no direct flights between Vietnam and India.

“Tourists travelling to India have to spend several hours in transit in Bangkok, Thailand. ­Furthermore, the cost is also higher and less competitive,” Quy Phuong said.

Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, and ­Jetstar Pacific have previously held charter flights to India. In last March, on the 45th anniversary of ­Vietnamese-Indian diplomatic ties, ­Vietjet announced plans to operate a direct route connecting Vietnam and India, with the first route planned to connect Ho Chi Minh City with New Delhi on the basis of four flights per week. However, almost a year later, Vietjet remains silent about progress on the launch of the route.