Since the beginning of 2025, a series of superyachts have continuously docked at Vietnamese ports, bringing thousands of international tourists to explore the country's beauty. This affirms the great potential of cruise tourism - a promising “gold mine”. However, to turn this type of tourism into a “golden goose”, the tourism industry still needs to remove many barriers and create more favourable conditions to attract and retain tourists.
A cruise ship docks at Tien Sa Port, Da Nang City. (Photo: Thu Ha)
Bustling cruise tourism market
With a 3,260 km coastline, more than 4,000 large and small islands, many beautiful bays and a deep-water port system convenient for large ships to anchor, Vietnam possesses great potential to develop cruise tourism. Located on the region's bustling maritime trade route and connecting with many major cruise tourism markets, such as China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore, Vietnam shows promising signs of a boom in this high-end tourism segment.
According to statistics from the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, in January 2025, the country welcomed nearly 2.1 million international visitors, with nearly 45,000 arriving by sea. Many coastal localities such as Da Nang, Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa), and Ho Chi Minh City have continuously welcomed many luxury cruise ships in the first months of 2025.
Recently, the Celebrity Solstice brought more than 3,000 European and US tourists to Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta provinces. In just one week in February 2025, three 5-star cruise ships brought nearly 3,300 international visitors to Phu Quoc (Kien Giang).
At the same time, the Adora Cruise ship docked at Tien Sa Port (Da Nang), carrying 2,400 international visitors on a journey from Guangzhou (China). In 2024, Da Nang cruise tourism recorded impressive growth with 35 cruises and 42,500 visitors (2.3 times higher than in 2023); 2025 is expected to explode even more. Tien Sa Port is estimated to welcome about 76 cruises, with more than 70,000 visitors, an increase of 64% compared to 2024, promising a promising year for the city’s cruise tourism.
Also at the end of February 2025, the international cruise ship Norwegian Spirit docked at Cam Ranh International Port (Khanh Hoa), bringing 1,900 tourists from many countries. In just the first 2 months of the year, Khanh Hoa welcomed 7 international cruise ships with more than 12,500 tourists.
Ha Long is not far behind with up to 60 cruise ships registered to dock in 2025, expected to bring about 90,000 tourists to Quang Ninh. This market is expected to be even more bustling because the period from January to April is the peak season for cruise tourism.
Helping to diversify Vietnam’s tourism products, the fact that leading cruise lines include the S-shaped strip of land in their itineraries also opens up opportunities for Vietnam to attract high-end tourists with large spending levels, while raising the position of national tourism on the international cruise tourism map.
Removing “barriers” for cruise tourism to break through
According to the UN Tourism’s forecast, cruise tourism will shift and develop strongly in the Asian region by 2030. Notably, this type of tourism brings in about 40% more revenue than air or road tourism. Therefore, if its potential is properly exploited, cruise tourism will become an important growth driver for the entire Vietnamese tourism industry and contribute significantly to its economy.
The Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030 has also identified sea and island tourism as a type that needs to be prioritised for development. However, to become an ideal destination for international superyachts, Vietnam still needs to overcome many limitations in infrastructure, services and policies to attract visitors.
According to Dr Pham Ha, General Director and Founder of Lux Group, Vietnam has nearly 30 coastal provinces and cities with the potential to welcome cruise tourists. But so far, only a few places have begun to exploit this market, such as Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, etc. While some countries in the region, such as Singapore, have specialised ports that can accommodate many large ships simultaneously, and the ships can dock right at the port, the country still seriously lacks specialised ports for sea tourism.
In some places, visitors have to walk quite a distance to reach where cars pick up for sightseeing. In many cases, passenger ships cannot dock because they have to give way to cargo ships. This greatly affects the ability to attract and experience tourists.
In addition, after many days at sea, when tourists dock, they want to be entertained, shop, and learn about local culture. However, Vietnam still lacks accompanying onshore products and services, so tourists can't stay longer or spend more. Most tourists only participate in simple day tours to explore destinations and return to the ship.
Therefore, Dr Pham Ha proposed there needs to be a comprehensive strategy to promote Vietnam's cruise tourism, focusing on investing in developing a separate seaport system to receive cruise passengers, with a system of infrastructure, entertainment centers, and modern shopping centers to meet the diverse needs of tourists.
The advantages of cruise tourists are their large numbers, time, and economic conditions, so it is necessary to research and develop tourism products with highlights and differences in cultural experiences to increase Vietnam's competitiveness compared to other destinations in the region on the same itinerary.
Given the current situation where the visa policy for cruise ship passengers is not flexible, and customs procedures are still quite time-consuming, Dr Pham Ha believes that it is necessary to simplify and reduce immigration procedures, instead of handling each person, it is possible to issue collective visas for the whole ship, or even exempt visas as some countries are doing to encourage tourists to extend their stay on shore and increase spending.
In the Strategy for Sustainable Development of Vietnam’s Marine Economy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, tourism and marine services have been identified as the top priority industry for successful and breakthrough development. Accordingly, in addition to focusing on investing in marine tourism infrastructure, encouraging and creating conditions for economic sectors to participate in developing marine tourism.
The strategy also emphasises the task of building, developing, diversifying products, product chains, and international-class marine tourism brands based on preserving biodiversity, promoting the value of unique natural, cultural, and historical heritages of regions, connecting with international tourism routes to make Vietnam an attractive destination, and piloting tourism development to islands and offshore areas.
Hopefully, with strategic steps, comprehensive innovation and synchronous investment, Vietnamese cruise tourism will make a strong breakthrough, making our country an impressive cruise tourism destination in the region and the world.
Hong Trang - Translated by NDO
