Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The itinerary for atourist visiting Hanoi typically includes some sightseeing for Instagram photosand trying out a bowl of ‘pho’ or a ‘banh mi’, possibly with acup of egg coffee.

Then they could relax after a full day of walkingwith a beer, or a lot more, in the evening on the party street of Ta Hien.

And that’s it. A day’s holiday in Hanoi could bewrapped up just before midnight.

Tourists flying from afar to Vietnam often wantmore than a full eight hours sleep, but nightlife in the country, not only in Hanoibut other popular tourist attractions like Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trangand Phu Quoc, is yet to catch up to demand despite rapid development over theyears.

The Government has been hesitant to encouragenightlife for years, mostly due to security concerns. That might change soon,thanks to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Recently, the PM asked ministries and localitiesto look into a new economic policy of China, which aims to promote thenightlife economy to help balance the losses the country has suffered from theongoing trade war with the US.

The capital city of Beijing encouraged servicesand businesses operating between 8pm to 6am by granting money to support theiroperations. Areas, for example, would receive about 700,000 USD to run throughthe night, while businesses could have up to 70,000 USD for expansion.

Other mega cities like Shanghai, Tianjin andChongqing are also paying more attention to their nightlife economy.

The PM’s order on Vietnamese nightlife caught theattention of economists, who have long argued that a boring nightlife was a keyreason for slow growth of tourism compared with the number of tourists.

According to statistics of the Vietnam NationalAdministration of Tourism, 2018 witnessed a record high in the number ofinbound and domestic tourists to the country, with a year-on-year increase of29.2 percent to nearly 15.6 million visitors. Revenue growth, however,increased only 21.4 percent.

Vietravel General Director Nguyen Quoc Ky saidVietnam’s tourism industry had a big blank space for nightlife services andactivities.

“Most tourism services now focus on the period oftime between 7am and 5pm. They create the so-called ‘hard revenue’ while the servicesthat earn the most are from 6pm to 2am,” Ky told Tuoi Tre (Youth)newspaper.

“They (nightlife services) are not developedproperly and tourists have nowhere to go and spend their money. Itis such a waste.” 

Surveys by Vietravel show the “hard revenue” – orincome from daytime activities – accounts for only 30 percent of total tourismrevenue while 70 percent comes from nightlife.

According to Ky, the absence of quality nightlifewas critical to the tourism industry as tourists were not interested inreturning to Vietnam while locals earned less than they could.

Vietnam’s return rate is dramatically low, atmerely 6 percent, compared to the rate of neighbouring countries Thailandand Singapore. As many as 82 percent of travellers visited Thailand more thantwice and 89 percent came back to Singapore.

The Institute for Tourism Development Research’s formerdeputy chairman Pham Trung Luong told Thanh Nien (Young People)newspaper that travellers normally spend their daytime sightseeing and it wasnight-time when they went shopping and spent money.

“Nightlife entertainment and services are thebiggest source of income of the tourism industry but Vietnamcompletely neglected them,” Luong said.

“Not to mention the taxes the Government couldhave collected from nightlife businesses,” he added.-VNS/VNA