Vietnam is being outpaced in the tourism sector by its regional neighbors due to an astonishing lack of funding for marketing the country internationally. This is despite tourism being a major industry for the country, and the sector being identified as a key area for growth in the recent World Bank-sponsored 20016-2020 economic development plan for Vietnam.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the annual budget for promoting tourism is only $2 million. Yes, you read that correctly, that is the entirety of the country’s tourism marketing budget. That won’t buy you a lot of air-time on CNN.

This picture taken on November 24, 2015 shows foreign tourists taking a rickshaw (cyclo) ride
along a street in the old quarter of Hanoi. (HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)

To put that in perspective, the leading countries in the region in terms of international tourist arrivals are Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. The $2 million Vietnam spends on tourism promotion represents 2.9 percent of Thailand’s budget for the same, 2.5 percent of Singapore’s and 1.9 percent of Malaysia’s investment in marketing itself as a destination.

Vietnam’s tourism industry is not exactly in decline. The sector has grown at roughly 6.5 percent annually over the last five years, and is projected to continue doing so. But it is failing to take advantage of its position through a lack of investment and is being outpaced by many of its regional neighbors.

Tourism in Thailand and Singapore grew by 12 percent and 10 percent respectively over the same period. Even Laos (15 percent) more than doubled Vietnam’s growth rate.

There are, however, costly competing priorities for the country that are relevant to the tourism sector. As I have noted previously, significant investments are need in infrastructure and re-tooling the education and training system to support the industry.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/