As we reviewed his expenses, my wife remarked: "Travel really burns through money."

Europeans are often seen as practical with their spending. Many would not pay around €1,000 (US$1,140) to install an air conditioner they rarely need. Yet families across the U.K. and Europe still set aside between £10,000 and more than £40,000 a year for travel because they vacation together, take multiple trips and often travel long distances.

That pattern reflects a culture of spending that has developed over generations. Countries that know how to welcome tourists are benefiting from it.

The question is whether Vietnam can attract more of that spending and persuade visitors to stay longer.

In 2025, Vietnam received more than 21 million foreign visitors, more than 20% up from 2024 and the pre-Covid peak of 18 million in 2019.

The momentum has continued in 2026.

In the first six months of the year, Vietnam received 12.3 million visitors, a 15% increase from the same period in 2025.

Arrivals from Europe jumped nearly 55% in the first five months, while online searches for travel to Vietnam by Chinese tourists rose 160%.

Those trends support the country's 2026 targets of 25 million visitors and VND1.125 quadrillion dong ($42.78 billion) in tourism revenues.

The head of a securities company once told me: "Tourism brings fresh cash into the economy."

When policymakers discuss achieving double-digit GDP growth, they usually focus on infrastructure, digital transformation, green development, innovation, and semiconductors. Those priorities are important.

Tourism is often treated as a supporting industry with potential rather than as an immediate growth engine that policymakers can strengthen through targeted measures.

Tourism generates foreign currency and creates jobs at the same time. It does not require a highly skilled workforce, decades of infrastructure investment like the semiconductor industry, or a place in global supply chains.

By almost any measure, it is already delivering double-digit growth.

Foreign tourists try the coracle ride at Bay Mau nipa palm forest in Hoi An, central Vietnam, April 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Vietnam's tourism industry has nearly 40,000 businesses and directly employs more than 2.5 million people.

As Vietnam faces new U.S. tariffs and uncertainty in alternative export markets, tourism offers a valuable source of foreign currency that is not subject to tariffs, is largely insulated from trade wars and can continue growing at double-digit rates.

That makes it a strategic buffer for the broader economy.

Still, the picture is not entirely positive. Analysts have warned that Vietnam risks falling into a "volume trap," where growth depends on attracting more visitors rather than increasing spending per visitor, while infrastructure and service quality fail to keep pace.

Thailand, one of Vietnam's main competitors, illustrates a different approach. Although it has recently seen fewer visitors, it retains strong tourism infrastructure, a wide range of travel products and an ecosystem built over decades. Its visa policies also target affluent long-term visitors who stay for more than a year instead of focusing only on arrival numbers.

Vietnam needs to confront this reality. Tourism should no longer be judged mainly by visitor numbers; spending, length of stay, and the industry's impact on other sectors are better measures of success.

In my own field, I see an opportunity that has not received enough attention.

Vietnam could become a destination for large international science and technology conferences at costs far below those in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, or Europe.

My experience, and that of several colleagues, suggests that hosting an international conference in Vietnam costs only 15-40% of what it does in those places, while participants also enjoy the country's food, hospitality, and resorts.

If that advantage is paired with stronger wellness, cultural, and culinary tourism, conference attendees are more likely to extend their trips.

A conference held on Wednesday and Thursday, for example, could encourage participants to stay through the weekend. Every extra day means more spending on hotels, restaurants, shopping, and local experiences. That creates far more value than simply increasing visitor numbers.

The bigger challenge is not attracting tourists; it is persuading them to return.

Without sustained investment and careful planning, tourism revenues can disappear as quickly as they arrive.

Compared with many high-tech industries, tourism has a lower barrier to entry. Charging premium prices, however, requires better service standards, stronger foreign-language skills, better management, and wider use of digital tools. Those improvements are also forms of innovation, and they can also support double-digit growth. They need the right policies to succeed.

As Vietnam looks for new sources of economic growth, foreign visitors continue to bring new spending into the country every day. The real question is not why they spend so much. It is whether Vietnam is ready to give them an experience that makes them want to come back.

Those who bring foreign currency into the country deserve to be treated like valued guests and welcomed back as friends.