Tourist Spending and Stay Rate

Waterway

In addition to the road, visitors can now choose to travel by water by speedboat from Bach Dang Wharf in Ho Chi Minh City to Chau Doc Town (speedboat departs on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 8am, arriving in Chau Doc in 6 hours with a ticket price of 250,000 VND). The addition of a water route with a destination point

The connection is a tourist pier that will help the locality attract more domestic and foreign visitors from Ho Chi Minh City as well as later expand to neighboring Cambodia or Kien Giang.

Road

Figure 2.10: Traffic map of the Southwest region

Roads are still the main means of transport to the locality. Chau Doc town is about 245 km west of Ho Chi Minh City, if traveling by car it takes about 6 hours (taking a Mai Linh bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Chau Doc takes 6 hours with a ticket price of 105,000 VND). Chau Doc town is 96km from Ha Tien, 179km from My Tho,

117km from Can Tho (take Mai Linh bus from Can Tho to Chau Doc takes 3 hours with ticket price 50,000 VND).

The road traffic route of the Mekong Delta region has many significant improvements and is getting better and better: My Thuan Bridge opened to traffic on May 21, 2000, followed by Can Tho Bridge officially opened to traffic on April 24, 2010. In addition, the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Intersection expressway will help save 1 hour on this route, which has been temporarily allowed by the Government to be exploited since February 3, 2010. This is a part of the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho expressway connecting the country's largest economic center, Ho Chi Minh City, with the key agricultural and aquatic areas of the Mekong Delta. In addition, the Mekong Delta region will break the oasis and open up the entire region with the projects of Vam Cong bridge (crossing Hau river, replacing the current Vam Cong ferry), Cao Lanh bridge (crossing Tien river, replacing the current Cao Lanh ferry) and the connecting road between the two bridges being implemented by the Ministry of Transport (these 3 projects will be invested with ADB loans). In addition, the current government is implementing a project of more than 312 million USD to improve the transport infrastructure of the Mekong Delta (see Appendix 6).

2.3.4 Tourists and tourism revenue

Table 2.4: Number of visitors and tourism revenue

Year

Customer service		Revenue (million VND)
N i d a	Qu ct	Revenue (million VND)
2003	1,855,365	11,500	15,387
2004	1,932,672	23,000	20,014
2005	2,013,200	23,500	30,075
2006	2,085,000	29,300	31,646
2007	2,208,500	41,500	41,607
2008	2,547,660	53,936	45,502
2009	2,982,800	48,952	50,016

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(Source: Chau Doc Town Economic Department and An Giang Department of Tourism)

The average growth rate of domestic visitors in the period 2003 - 2009 was 9% (compared to 8% of the whole province) and international visitors was 31%, much higher than the rate of 9.7% of the whole province. It is clear that international visitors are willing to travel further and stay in Chau Doc than other destinations in the province before continuing to Cambodia or tourist destinations in Kien Giang. The favorable geographical location can give Chau Doc a great opportunity to start developing international tourism products and services. This is a strategic decision, leading to great changes in the town's tourism development planning. However, the proportion of the international market is still very small compared to the domestic market (less than 1%). It may take a long time for international tourism to explode in the town.

Table 2.5: Tourist spending and stay rate

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
International guests
+ Days of stay/international guests	Day	2	2	2.2	2.35	2.6	2.8	3
+ Spending level in day/international visitor	USD	34.3	40	42	44	48	50	55
Domestic guests
+ Days of stay/domestic guests	Day	1.5	1.5	1.6	1.7	1.8	1.9	2
+ Spending level in day/domestic passenger	1000 VND/day	170	171	171	180	189	199	209

(Source: An Giang Department of Tourism)

However, the town has also faced many challenges. The low rate of staying visitors (only about 20%) leads to a low average length of stay (from 1-3 days). A large number of pilgrims only come to Chau Doc during the day to pray and then return or travel to other cities. In addition, the tourist season in the town is quite short, only about 3-5 months a year, mainly during the festival month (April of the lunar calendar). The average daily expenditure is about 200,000 VND for domestic visitors and 55 USD for international visitors, mainly for accommodation and food. Clearly, there is much to be done to attract international and domestic visitors, retain them longer and make them spend more in the town.

2.3.5 Current status assessment

From the above overview of Chau Doc tourism market, I will synthesize and analyze the SWOT matrix for Chau Doc tourism industry to determine strategic directions with consideration of industry assessment results and strategic changes of the Town.

2.3.5.1 Analysis of strengths and weaknesses

Chau Doc Town from its characteristics needs to be classified into strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats (SWOT) to get an accurate overview. The locality needs to have an objective view and identify what are the main strengths, secondary strengths, neutral factors, major and minor weaknesses. The competitive position of Chau Doc Town reflects the following two groups of conditions: (1) external resources that are not under the control of the locality and (2) local characteristics that can be affected by specific activities in the locality. It is necessary to have a sufficiently long and clear strategy to maximize the strengths and improve some weaknesses.

TABLE 2.6: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

Strengths main	Secondary Strengths	Medium	Minor Weaknesses	Main weakness
Hard elements
• Economic stability		X
• Productivity				X
• Expense			X
• Concept of ownership					X
• Local support services and networks				X
• Communications infrastructure		X
• Strategic location	X
• Forms of incentives		X
Soft elements

• Development in a specialized direction

	X
• Quality of life			X
• Capacity of workforce and professionals			X
• Culture		X
• Individual		X
• How to manage				X
• Flexibility and dynamism		X
• Professional level in market relations					X
• Entrepreneurial spirit				X

(Source: Marketing in Asian Places-Philip Kotler)

From the above assessment framework, the locality has the following strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

1. Have a complete State management structure;

2. Issued important legal documents and regulations;

3. Unique cultural, historical and religious tourism resources;

4. Strategic geographical location;

5. Already have a strong name and brand;

6. Small and medium scale investment capacity of local entrepreneurs;

7. Development of small and medium-sized tourism businesses;

8. Good infrastructure conditions;

9. Large demand for domestic tourism;

10. There is a need for international travel;

Weaknesses

1. Lack of specialized staff in key agencies and positions;

2. Lack of some important legal documents;

3. Domination of domestic tourism industry

low quality soil;

4. Untrained human resources;

5. Isolation from major tourist centers in the region;

6. Lack of environmentally friendly treatment facilities and technology;

7. Fragile public-private partnership and stakeholder coordination.

2.3.5.2 Identify opportunities and threats

The next step is to identify the opportunities and threats facing the locality.

TABLE 2.7: OPPORTUNITY-THREAT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

(Source: Strategic orientation of Da Lat-Lam Dong tourism marketing to 2020)

From the above assessment framework, the locality is having the following opportunities and facing the following risks:

Opportunity

1. Decentralize State management of tourism to localities;

2. Growth rate of both domestic and international tourism to the region;

3. Support from international development organizations and projects;

4. Greater attention from government agencies and tourism businesses;

5. The emergence of new technologies and knowledge in tourism business management and development.

Risk

1. The emergence of alternative tourism products at nearby destinations;

2. Investment and construction of tourist facilities not according to planning;

3. Floods or other natural hazards.

2.4 DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

2.4.1 Objective

2.4.1.1 Customer objects

With the available advantages of natural conditions, culture and society; the tourism industry of Chau Doc Town is oriented to attract more and more domestic and international visitors to visit, ideal for tourism and relaxation and will be a highly effective business opportunity for investors. The following is a forecast table of the number of visitors to Chau Doc in the period of 2006 - 2010 based on the growth plan selected in the master plan for tourism development of the province with a growth rate of 3.9% (for domestic visitors) and 5.9% (for international visitors).

Table 2.8: Forecast of tourist arrivals

Number of visitors

2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Domestic	3,099,129	3,219,995	3,345,575	3,476,052	3,611,619
International	51,840	54,899	58,138	61,568	65,200

(Source: Author's forecast)

This tourist forecast will be specifically proposed in the town's tourism development master plan based on an assessment of market demand, activity levels, travel capacity and spending of tourists. In addition, the forecast here also takes into account seasonal factors to guide investment projects.

2.4.1.2 Objects of cooperation and competition

Chau Doc town is known as a culturally diverse land with many religions and ethnic groups in the Mekong Delta. It can be said that this is the attraction for tourists to Chau Doc compared to other tourist areas.

It is a combination with the Ba Chua Xu Festival, enjoying the charming river scenery and enjoying the famous fish sauce specialty of Chau Doc; it is a combination of the hobby of shopping for border goods at Xuan To border gate, or visiting Tra Su cajuput forest... In addition, about four hours by car from Chau Doc, tourists can go to Ha Tien.

– a tourist area with beautiful and poetic sea. Therefore, in the tourism development strategy, this will be a possible development link.

However, not only Chau Doc has strengths in cultural and spiritual tourism, but even right next door is Cambodia, famous for its sacred temples and pagodas, unique architecture (Angkor Wat temple), Tay Ninh with Ba Den mountain and Ba pagoda (Binh Duong) are also places that attract spiritual tourists.

In addition, other tourist destinations with the advantage of beautiful landscapes, long-standing reputation, convenient transportation location, good tourism infrastructure and high quality services (for example: Da Lat, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet ...) are competitors of Chau Doc town. Therefore, to have a competitive advantage, it is required that the tourism development strategy must be diverse and rich in types; focus on improving service quality and expanding the customer base.

2.4.2 Development strategy

SWOT MATRIX

OPPORTUNITIES (O)

CHALLENGES (T)

STRENGTHS(S)

COMBINED (SO)

(Exploit strengths, take advantage of opportunities)

Strategy for planning, product development and tourism investment

- Diversify products and service types

- Effective exploitation of resources, differentiated products

- Beautify natural landscape, expand market

- Regional links.