Indian tourists are special group that Vietnam is targeting.
As noted by Zing, currently, there are 2 streams of opinions about Indian tourists. For experts in the field of tourism, Indian tourists are a potential group with great spending power, which can replace Chinese and Russian tourists. However, service people sometimes find this group of tourists quite difficult to please.
Difficult Indian tourists?
Searching for the keyword “Indian tourists” in hotel groups, you can easily find many funny stories shared by people in industry. Most concluded that this is a rather difficult group of tourists.
Tran Son Tung, a former manager of a large hotel in Hanoi, admits Indian tourists have their own cultural characteristics. This sometimes makes service workers in Vietnam “a little tired”.
From personal experience, Tung found that this group of customers often ask for a lot, for example, asking for discounts, free services,… Therefore, service workers must understand their psychology to have the best treatment.
India is a potential customer group but has many unique characteristics. Photo: Aravind Kumar.
“I see that as the common pattern of most Indian tourists in Vietnam. Of course, there are also exceptions. They are more polite and tactful,” he said.
Tung’s experience when working with Indian tourists is to always be careful in communication. He advised “people in the industry” to keep their spirit of steel, not to let them “manipulate psychology”. For example, if guests want to get more than they paid for, you need to prevent them from the start so they don’t have high expectations.
According to the former manager of this hotel, service people need to know how to treat tourists. However, with any guest, they must also know the balance between “dimensional” and “tough”.
He added: “They quite like to ask, but not being able to ask doesn’t make it difficult for us. I see many service people also complain about serving Indian tourists. However, everything is not too negative. It’s like Just like a funny story of people in the industry.”
Should understand them
Zing also had an exchange with Mr. Phung Quang Thang, Chairman of the Hanoi Travel Association about the thoughts of people working in the service industry about Indian tourists.
Mr. Thang said each market has different segments. The mass-market segment is the most popular. Next is the well-off group, V.I.P with fewer numbers. Many establishments only accept mass tourists, not experienced with high-class tourists in India.
In addition, the difference between the rich and poor in India is quite large. Therefore, even in the same market, Indian customers also have this person, that person. However, Mr. Thang emphasized that this is still a potential market with billions of people. The problem lies in how Vietnam will exploit this market.
The group of super-rich tourists in India is targeted by Vietnam. Photo: SKM.
“Actually, each hotel is aimed at a group of tourists that are suitable for their facilities and communication methods. Most units only accept mass guests and do not really understand them. Remember, before 2019, Indian visitors to Vietnam are still relatively few,” he shared.
Understanding the customer is important. Because they have not really had much contact with this group of customers, many service people are still surprised. However, currently, Russian tourists cannot return much because of political problems. Chinese tourists are again affected by the anti-epidemic policy. In this context, India is still considered as a major source of supply for Vietnam’s tourism market.
To be able to understand and welcome more Indian visitors, Mr. Thang said that travel businesses and localities also need to focus on training and increasing knowledge of human resources. We must understand their culture and personality before we want to attract this group of visitors to Vietnam.
According to a representative of the Hanoi Travel Association, the essence of tourism is cultural exchange. We need to respect the cultural issues of foreign tourists – in this case, Indian tourists.
“The parties need to join hands more to support and train human resources in the industry when welcoming a new customer market like India. We respect them. They will respect and come to us”, Mr. Thang said.
@ Zing News