DEVELOPING, USING AND ANALYZING THE RESULTS OF INTERVIEWS TO DETERMINE THE FEELINGS OF FOREIGN TOURISTS ON THEIR VISIT TO VIET NAM

According to the purpose of the report, we had to go out to carry out our interview with the foreigner tourists.

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSTTY

FACULTY OF TOURISM

  

PROJECT HD2

DEVELOPING, USING AND ANALYZING THE RESULTS

OF INTERVIEWS TO DETERMINE THE FEELINGS OF FOREIGN TOURISTS ON THEIR VISIT TO VIET NAM

NGUYEN THI THU HIEN

HA NOI - 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I/ INTRODUCTION 2

II/ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 4

III/ RESULTS 5

1 Background 8

2 Reason for travel 11

3 Tourist sites or intending to visit 12

4 Appreciations of quality of tourist services 14

5 Source of information and how useful it was 16

6 Accommodation facilities 18

7 Quality of food 19

8 Transportations 22

9 Shopping and entertainment 23

10 Extra comments 24

IV/ DISCUSSION 25

V/ RECOMMENDATIONS 29

I/ INTRODUCTION

Through many last assignments, we had many big chances to beacquainted with doing in-group, working with many various topics, whichrequired an ability of working, of researching, etc

With this HD2 project, we also get more chances to work in-group, but

in this topic, we get a new way to do this assignment It brings us a chance tocommunicate with foreigners, to interview and from that; we can learnsomething different from last assignments Because of the purpose of theassignment, is that encouraging students to meet and talk with foreigners,obtaining information by designing, asking questions and analyzing theirresults in a short report? So that, it is very interesting with the student because

it helps student to developing higher skills and abilities, which are differentfrom, last projects

Writing this report, we hope that we can bring something new to theteacher and the students in faculty of tourism We summarized our aninterview by this report, and we want to supply some present information’sabout foreign tourists, about what they are thinking about Vietnam tourism,what they hope and what they see? Then, teachers and students may knowclearly about the fact of tourism in Vietnam It will help students have theright acknowledge about tourism in our country Especially, doing this report,students can learn many things in analyzing chart, which is very helpful forthe future

In order to do this job, we shared the work equally by two members inour groups:

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Nguyen Thi Thu Hien:

 Introduction

 Interview Question

 First half of the result part: from background to the sources ofinformation and how useful/accurate it was

Nguyen Thi Hong Nam:

 Second part of the result: From accommodation facilities toextra comments

 Discussion

 Recommendations

 Edit and print

II/ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

According to the purpose of the report, we had to go out to carry out ourinterview with the foreigner tourists We had to spend two days in the Old-Quarter to do it Before carrying this interview, we intended to choose somedestinations around Hanoi where have many tourists Moreover, in our mind,

we thought it was so easy to get information Nevertheless, after interviewing,

we recognized that it did not look like our imagination

On the first day, we wandered around Restored Sword Lake to find thetourists We approached some tourists who sat on the bench We did itwithout difficulties We saw them with a friendly way, very natural way, andvery welcomed However, some of them stared us, looked us in unfriendlyway and did not want to bother anymore Because they have only come toHanoi for one day and Hanoi was the first places in their visit Moreover,some of tourists are come from French, so, we got many difficulties incommunicating with these tourists Suddenly, we felt very disappointed anddid not want to go at all And we continued finding other guests, but not muchtourist, so we could interview one to two travelers Most of them seemed tooclosed, to be friendly and warmhearted, and welcome us They told useverything they did in Vietnam and they thought about Vietnam in theirtravels Therefore, they helped us in getting information for our interview.But, in generally, we had not completed 12 sheets Questionnaires yet Namand I were very tired at that time We sat each other, discussed and gave thelast decision

On the second day, we found a Beer road site inn (Bia hoi) in Ta Hienstreet It is the place where have many tourist drinking beer there, veryfamous street with tourist

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We ordered a bottle of orange juice, drank and wait for a chance toaccess tourists And we got it Most of tourists here were very cheerful, veryhumor and very easy to get an open talk with them Besides that, they alsoasked them for some visiting places in Hanoi, where they have to go and tosee And, for only one hour, we finished our interview with a lot ofinformation not only in the project but also in the outside We were veryhappy

III/ RESULTS

Our questionnaire designed an interview of 25 questions and divided into

10 main topics:

1 Background

2 Reason for travel

3 Tourist sites visited or intending to visit

4 Tourist services used

5 Sources of information and how useful it was

Hereafter is the questionnaire that we designed:

QUESTIONAIRE

Name:……… Nationality:

………

Age: Young Middle age Older

Sex: Male /Female

Kind of travel: Independent Group Business

1 How many times have you visited Vietnam?

2 Why did you choose Viet Nam for your travel?

3 Have you visited some famous destinations and world heritages in

Vietnam?

4 Which is the destination in Vietnam you like the most? And Why?

5 What kind of tourist service have you used in Vietnam?

6 What is your opinion about the services you has used in Vietnam?

7 The quality of tour guide in Vietnam is:

8 Your search information about Vietnam by:

9 Do you often use a system of tourism information when you travel

in Vietnam?

10.Is it easy for you to approach the tourism information center? Give

me your trouble if no?

11.Do you often get brochure from the destination you come?

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12.What is your comment about the quality of brochure?

13.What kind of accommodations you staying in Hanoi?

14.What did you think about the accommodation that you stayed inHanoi?

15.Have you ever tasted some traditional foods in Vietnam?

16.If yes, where did you try it?

17.How do you feel about traditional food in Vietnam?

18.What is Vietnamese food you like most?

19.What is your appreciation about transportation system in Vietnam?20.Have you ever gone shopping in Vietnam or Hanoi?

21.Where is the place you often go for shopping?

22.Did you find suitable places for your entertainment in Hanoi? If

no, do you have any suggestion for Hanoi?

23.What are your impressions of Hanoi?

24.Did your visit to Hanoi meet your expectations?

25.Will you return to Hanoi for a second visit?

1 Background

a Chart of Nationality

This pie chart shows us the Nationality of the tourist coming to Vietnam

at this time, and divided into three occupations: tourists from European,Oceanian and North American In general, the greatest number of tourist whocoming to Vietnam recently is North American tourists with 42% There aresmaller percentages of European and Oceanian tourists They occupy 33%and 25% It is not difficult to explain for this result As you can see, there is avacation for the Western countries at this time Therefore, they spend moretime and money for travelling, and for relaxing in some Southern EasternAsian countries: Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam And thereason why the north American tourists come to Vietnam much more thanbefore? Because, at this time, there is a presidential racing in America, andone of them is John Mc Cain, who was an Airman in Vietnam War, whodrove B52 airplane for American army Many documents, which talked abouthim, kept in Hoalo prison Therefore, it is the reason why many tourists fromNorth American country come to Vietnam at this time

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b Estimate age of tourist

This column shows the estimate age of the tourist As it is shown in chart

2, middle age people have the highest percentage, occupy 58,5% Thepercentage of young tourists is slightly smaller than the percentage of middleage tourists It means that at that time, the tourist at the age of the middle insome western countries have more free time, we can find many middle agetourist in everywhere They travel with family, with friends and groups Butdifferent from the young age, the tendency of middle age tourists is that theyonly buy a tour with package services, and enjoy the most famous places,don’t want to have experienced like a real backpacker The old age occupyonly 9% It shows us that at this time, when the young and middle age people

go to travel, they stay at home to keep the house for their children, or travelnot much This kind of tourist wants to have a culture tour, have a rest.Therefore, not many tourists stay in Hanoi now

Estimate age of tourist

Some of independent travelers are students, they travel alone to get thereal experienced, because they have not much money, and are calledbackpackers.

Others independent tourists were interviewed said that: they travel alonebecause they want to discover by themselves, although they have muchmoney to buy package tours

The tendency of travelling alone becomes popular in Vietnam However,

as you know, they are not the potential customer of Vietnam tourism So, wethink that Vietnam tourism should have more strategies to attractive highertourist market

2 Reason for travel

Reason for travel

beautiful cheap strange other reasons

beautiful cheap strange other reasons

This chart presents the reason for travel As it is shown in the chart, thepercentage of reason for beauty and others reason are equal, occupy 42% intotal And the number of tourist choose Vietnam for cheap and strange havethe same pecentage: 8% In brief, most of the tourist says that Vietnam is verybeautiful and famous with many landscapes, traditional food Most of thetourist said that they love Halong Bay with natural beauty, love Hoian, Huewith its ancient traditional culture, love Hochiminh city with busy city,shopping there is very interesting, and especially, Hanoi is very peaceful forthem to relax, to see water puppet, very exciting Therefore, it is easy to seethis result Others reasons why tourist choose Vietnam are: they have manyVietnamese friends live in their countries, and they introduced to visit here, orsome others choose Vietnam because they want to visit some world heritages

in Vietnam

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3 Tourist sites or intending to visit

This chart shows us the tourist sites which tourist chooses to visit inVietnam and intend to visit

We gathered the popular destinations with tourists into three areas:Southern, Northern and Middle of Vietnam

The result shows that most of the tourists like northern of Vietnam with50% According to our interview, we asked question about the reason whyyou like northern of Vietnam, most of them told us that because they fond ofHalong bay, they love Tamcoc, love Hanoi, and many thing in Hanoi Hanoi

is so quite different from Hochiminh city

33 percent are belonging to Southern of Vietnam, with some famousplaces like Hochiminh city, with Nhatrang, Mui ne (Phanthiet city) They lovebeaches there

Only 28% tourist chooses middle of Vietnam Most of the tourists whosaid that they like Vietnam because of some reasons here: Hue people are

very friendly and closely, foods bring traditional cuisine, very wonderful, theyknow well about Spring roll in Hue, but we wondered that spring roll inHanoi is also very delicious, why tourist can remember deeply in their mindabout this food.

Generally, the result shows that destinations are disposed equally inthree areas of Vietnam And it helps tourists get know well about Vietnam,get more different feeling about Vietnam by many different traditionalcultures

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4 Appreciations of quality of tourist services

There are some small differences in this chart We did not divide thetourist services too clearly, but we generally gathered the tourist services tohave a general viewing about services, which tourists used in Vietnam

As you can see in this chart, the percentage of good services whichtourist felt is 50 percent, quite good is 34 percent However, they do neverhave a real satisfaction about the quality of services they used here Theycomplained us about the hotel, guide It has not good standard About thequality of the guide, they also had bad complications: tour guide don’t knowthe way with some destinations, tour guide speak so quite, and something notgood We felt so disappointed

A small amounts of tourist thought that tourist services are so quite badand fair, occupy 8%

Some of them complained about transportation in Hanoi, very funny,very crazy and have no rule Especially, when they drank beer hoi in the

to sit at the back to avoided Very funny, and street vendors are alsopersistent too, they earn money by treat the tourist with a higher prices Sometourists know about it but others did not know they easily give money to thestreet vendor by his funny stories: “buy for me, if you buy, you will be verylucky” and many crazy things.

On the whole, the chart shows that percentage of good quality is muchhigher than quite good Now, tourism in Vietnam has not enough goodprofessional marketing strategy, and lack of services It will lead the touristfeel so boring and do not want to come back again

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5 Source of information and how useful it was

Series1 42% 50% 0% 8%

Friend Internet/boo

k

Tour company

Other sources

The chart presents the source of information tourist use and find beforecoming to Vietnam Seeing this chart, we can recognize that most of thetourist find information from internet and book (lonely planet), occupy 50%.Itmeans that, nowadays, internet is very useful method for tourist who want totravel in everywhere They can get enough information for them withoutlosing a lot of time or money Then, when they are travelling, they use lonelyplanet book as a pocket dictionary They easily find many things from thisbook Most of tourists use a map and a lonely planet book The others resultshows us that introducing by friend are so popular, with 42% This kind ofadvertising is also very good and interesting for the tourist, because they willget more experienced to avoided something, and to know what they can doand don’t in Vietnam No one choose Tour Company for finding information

It is very easy to understand because they are afraid of quality of thecompany

Altogether, almost tourists choose internet for finding information aboutVietnam

b.Brochure and tourism information center:

According to our result, most of the tourist said no when I asked themabout tourism information center, do they often use it to find information.And the result is 75% Although they told us that the information centers arevery easy to approach, they said that they had a guidebook, so, it’s enough forthem, many information in this book

25% tourist said yes because they want to get more exactly informationand sometime them lost way

And about quality of brochure, a tourist who comes from Australia said

to me: “I have visited Vietnam for 3 times, and I love it But I have never gotany brochure because it has a lot of English mistakes, very funny, thatsometime I can’t know And the color of the brochure is not fine So, I don’tlike it very much”

58% tourists considered that brochures have not enough information forthem

In general, this chart shows that the quality of brochure is not good, and

it needs to be changed to get more attractiveness from tourists

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