Vietnam’s tourism industry is gradually getting rid of the “four seasons as one” product path to focus on designing specialized seasonal experience tours.
When his daughter gave him a 5-day, 4-night trip to Thailand, Mr. Tran Huu Cuong, 60 years old, living in Ninh Binh, glanced at it and put it down. The trip scheduled for the end of November reminds him of the schedule with the company in 2010. He explained that this trip is “exactly the same as the tour 15 years ago, with the same destinations and activities”, expressing disappointment in the repetition of the route tour.
Mr. Cuong’s feelings reflect the reality of two parallel trends in the Vietnamese travel market. Vietluxtour representative, Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, said a part of the product remains “all four seasons as one”: the schedule, destinations and experiences remain almost the same, whether domestic or international tours, only the name or departure time changes.
Ms. Thu believes that this approach makes it easier for businesses to operate, but in the long run, it reduces attraction and reduces the number of returning customers, especially young customers and families who have traveled to many places.
Tourists return to Hoi An ancient town, November 1. Image: Nguyen Dong
The second trend, designing tours based on seasons and “experience stories”, is becoming more and more evident in travel companies that focus on branding. This direction requires greater creativity and investment but is considered sustainable.
Ms. Thu said the company designs tours in the second direction, not viewing the season as just a beautiful time to go but also as a content to build products. The goal is the same destination, she said, but each season must have a unique reason why guests choose to go at that time.
Ms. Nguyen Thuy Chung, Head of Etrip4u.com tour department, also said that travel agencies are gradually ignoring the traditional way of making tours to clearly divide each typical stage. According to her, this method helps the product stay fresh and the business has a steady stream of customers all year round.
According to booking data on Agoda in the first 6 months of 2025, Vietnam has risen to third in the top 5 Asian countries with the highest number of returning visitors, after Japan, Thailand and above Malaysia and Indonesia. For the first time, Da Nang appeared in the top 10 Asian cities with the highest rate of returning visitors. Last year, Vietnamese cities were absent from this list.
Tourists experience a day of farming in Tra Que vegetable village in the summer. Image: Vietluxtour
This seasonal tour design trend is specified by Deputy General Director of Viet Tourism Company, Mr. Pham Anh Vu, according to each customer group and need.
Summer, lasting from June to August, is the season for beach tourism and family travel. Therefore, tours are maximally focused on island destinations such as Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Da Nang or cool plateaus such as Da Lat and Sa Pa. The products are designed to go beyond the framework of “swimming – eating seafood”, trips are created according to themes, for example tours combining wellness – health care, or beach sports experiences suitable for multi-generational family groups or corporate team building.
When entering autumn, September-November, Northern tourism products take the throne. Tourists will aim for unique cultural and natural experiences. That is hunting the golden season on terraced fields in Mu Cang Chai, or hunting clouds and watching wild sunflowers bloom in Sa Pa and Ha Giang.
The combination of the experience of hunting golden rice in the Northwest and indigenous cultural tours has helped the occupancy rate of these itineraries reach 90% since launch, as recorded by many northern travel businesses. In winter, snow hunting products related to festivals, Christmas, and New Year also attract tourists. According to Mr. Vu of Viet Tourism, year-end tours at the company were 50% booked in October.
Even year-round tourist destinations like Da Lat are also designed with tours based on the flower season, from wild sunflowers, purple poincianas to cherry blossoms, creating different “reasons” for visitors to return. International tours are also more clearly divided, from cherry blossom or yellow and red leaf season tours in Asia, to year-end shopping festival season tours in Singapore, or snow watching and skiing tours in Korea, Japan, and Europe.
According to Mr. Vu, the trend of seasonal tourism is increasingly requested and interested by tourists. After the pandemic, global traveler behavior changed significantly. Instead of focusing on “instant noodle” tours with old, traditional destinations, many Vietnamese tourists want to have unique, personalized experiences at the right time of departure.
Tourists row boats on streams in Quang Binh. Image: Vo Thanh
A booking application with partners in 220 countries and territories, Booking.com in November 2024 announced 9 main travel trends in 2025. In 2025, the Millennial generation (or Gen Y, born from 1981 to 1996) changes the way they look at the airport experience, the Baby boomers generation (1946-1964) pursues adventurous trips, changing because it saves money to distribute inheritance to children and grandchildren. “It can be seen that people gradually see travel as a way to self-discover and build deeper connections with the world,” the booking platform said.
However, tourism experts in Vietnam also admit that the biggest challenge is creating a real difference. The fact that many companies simultaneously launch similar seasonal products leads to saturation in tour highlights. Mr. Vu commented: “Any company that creates more different experience products will attract more customers.”
Besides product issues, ensuring service quality during peak season is also a big challenge. Ms. Thu said that to increase competitiveness and attract tourists, units working in the service sector need to strengthen consulting, customer care and work closely with the partner system at the destination, ensuring stable service quality.
In fact, the overload of tourism services during peak seasons such as summer and the northern rice hunting season has caused an increase in service prices of up to 30-50% and a serious decline in the quality of accommodation and transportation at the destination.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on November 6, by the end of October, Vietnam is estimated to welcome more than 17 million international visitors and reached more than 60% of the year’s target.
With the goal of welcoming 25 million international visitors and 150 million domestic visitors by 2025, the tourism industry cannot rely only on traditional tours.
“Unique products and dedicated services are vital factors to help the Vietnamese tourism industry develop sustainably and make a mark on the international tourism map,” Mr. Vu said.