DIFFERENT TRAVEL TRENDS IN VIETNAM AND NEW ZEALAND
Laura Douglas’s tourism startup, a farm surrounded by snow-tipped mountains in southern New Zealand, was attracting hundreds of mostly foreign visitors every month until the coronavirus pandemic brought it to a sudden halt in March.
“It’s like I’ve been mourning the loss of my business,” Douglas, 33, said in a telephone interview with Reuters, adding she had to take on a second job as a veterinarian to pay the bills during the lockdown.
The rebound for New Zealanders who are reliant on tourism is expected to be slow, in marked contrast to how the tourism sector is faring in Vietnam, another country hailed as a success story for containing Covid-19.
Both countries have emerged from lockdown virtually virus-free, lifting all restrictions except those on international travel. While New Zealand’s tourism sector is struggling pending arrivals from abroad, Vietnam’s has rebounded.
Vietnam, with a population of 95 million, has been able to use domestic tourism to fill the gap. It is also one of the few countries in the world that is still forecast to record growth in gross domestic product this year.
July is normally the peak travel season in New Zealand but scheduled flights are down 40% compared to the same month last year and even many of those are being cancelled, according to the travel analytics firm Cirium.
Weekly demand for Airbnb and Vrbo rental properties through July is down 55% from last year and a recovery is unlikely until later this year, according to AirDNA.
In Vietnam, the story is very different. This month, more than 26,000 flights are expected to transport 5 million people, increases of 16% and 24% from last year.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Anh, the owner of Minh Viet Booking, says he is handling a surge in bookings as businesses slash prices to attract local travellers.
“Many people who couldn’t afford five-star services before are taking advantage of the programmes to experience the services,” he said, referring to central and provincial government efforts to boost mass domestic tourism.
In a country with poor rail and road infrastructure, air travel is already a popular mode of transport, and even more so now, with airlines adding routes and offering tickets for as low as 69,000 dong (US$3).
A Reuters analysis of flight data from FlightRadar24 shows that Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, along with Phu Quoc island and Cam Rahn bay were the top destinations through mid-June after lockdowns were lifted in late April.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is asking people to “experience your own backyard”. She is urging employers to consider four-day work weeks and has said the government is actively considering more public holidays this year.
Some New Zealanders appear to be heeding her encouragement and taking weekend road trips.
Demand for hotels and short-term rentals, while depressed overall, still ticks up on weekends according to STR, an analytics firm that looks at the hotel industry.
But tourism business owners say a pot of NZ$400 million (US$260 million) in state funds to subsidise wages and other costs for the industry will not be enough to tide it over while foreign tourists are still barred.
Foreigners account for half the NZ$16.1 billion that tourism contributes to GDP in New Zealand. Economist Peter Clough says that gap will be difficult to plug with just domestic travellers in a country of only 5 million.
“Whatever we do, we’re not going to fill that hole just by drumming up domestic travel or the Trans-Tasman bubble,” he said, referring to a proposal to allow movement between Australia and New Zealand.
For Douglas, the downturn means digging deep into her own pockets and pivoting as much as possible to attract local travel to her 15,000-hectare farm.
“The farming mentality is that you’re not always going to have good seasons,” she said. “Right now, Kiwis are going to be the best gift for us and I’m hoping they will come with their gumboots on.”
Domestic tourism helps, but New Zealand has just 5 million people, compared with 95 million in Vietnam