VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese spend $1.5 billion dollars to receive training
at foreign universities, $2 billion to have healthcare abroad and $3.5 billion
on outbound tours.
The number of tourists abroad increases by 20 percent per annum
Though Vietnam is listed as a poor country with the average income per capita at
around $1,200 a year, Vietnamese have been well known in the world as the big
consumers, who can spend money on the most luxurious services and most expensive
cars in the world.
The Vietnam Travel Association has released a report showing that the number of
Vietnamese traveling abroad increases steadily by 20 percent per annum who spend
$3.5 billion abroad.
Every year, 1.1 million Vietnamese travel to China, 1 million to Cambodia,
500,000 to Thailand, 300,000 to Singapore, 200,000 to Malaysia, 110,000 to South
Korea. Vietnamese also travel to further countries in Europe or America.
“The number of tourists abroad increases by 20 percent per annum, which has made
Vietnam a source market for many countries in the world,” said Vu The Binh,
Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Travel Association.
Also according to Binh, Vietnamese prove to be generous, spending big money
during their trips abroad. According to the Thai tourism agency, every
Vietnamese traveler spends $1,200 each trip. Meanwhile, the Chinese agency says
a Vietnamese spends $1,000 when he comes to the vast country.
Prior to that, in January 2013, Nguyen Truong Giang, a senior official of the
Ministry of Finance said Vietnamese remit $1-1.5 billion abroad every year to
fund their studies at foreign schools.
It is estimated that it costs every Vietnamese student $10,000-15,000 a year to
follow the training at foreign schools. Meanwhile, a report by the Ministry of
Education and Training showed that in the 2011-2012 academic year, 106,000
students went studying abroad, which means that foreign schools earn $1-1.5
billion from Vietnamese students.
Commenting about the figures, educators say this is an overly big sum of money
if compared with the income per capita of Vietnamese. The sum of money is equal
to 50 percent of the total rice export made out by 10 million Vietnamese
farmers.
The Ministry of Health has reported that 40,000 Vietnamese patients spend 2
billion dollars a year on foreign healthcare services.
It is estimated that 5,000-10,000 Vietnamese go to Singapore every year to have
healthcare services. B…International hospital in Thailand alone receives 80-100
patients from Vietnam. South Korea and China also receive higher numbers of
Vietnamese patients every year.
The latest survey by Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, a subsidiary of the US WPP
Group, showed that the consumption demand of Vietnamese has changed a lot. In
the next 10 years, urban areas would be the potential destinations for consumer
goods, high grade products and beauty products.
The Vietnamese rich people tend to spend more money on branded goods and
services. Branded goods, in the minds of Vietnamese, means high prices and high
quality. A luxury product or service would be price at no less than $480.
A survey by YR Vietnam showed that Apple, Sony, Toyota and Honda are the most
popular brands to Vietnamese.
According to Bloomberg, a newswire, Rolls Royce, a luxury car manufacturer,
plans to increase the number of sales agents from 105 to 120 in the next five
years in Chile, Thailand and Vietnam to access the millionaires in the markets.
Hermes, a brand of high end products, also considers opening the second shop in
Vietnam to boost the sales of its products here.
Dat Viet