Come & Go Vietnam Blog

Thanks to regular travel blogger The Travel Tart for tweeting this story earlier today. Now you may see it as just another in a long line of spurious American lawsuits (like the woman who sued McDonalds after being burned by a hot apple pie), but it does say something about how absurd airport security procedures have become.

I recently flew back from WTM in London via that well known hellhole, Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport. I’d come down with bronchitis during my stay and had bought a bottle of cough medicine in London before catching the Tube to the airport. However, despite this medicine being in a sealed box, and contained in a bottle with a sealed lid, because it contained over 150ml of liquid, the rude, officious security officer confiscated it. I asked her if she enjoyed taking medicine away from sick people, and assured her that I was sure her family were proud of her for doing such noble work. I was then obliged to buy exactly the same bottle of medicine airside, which basically sums up why this procedure is in place – during a recession, airport retail outlets need all the help they can get to make money.

Look out! He's got cough syrup!

Don’t get me wrong, I accept the need for security at airports, but the idea that anyone might be able to cause mischief or hijack a plane armed solely with a bottle of Boots chesty cough medicine is utterly ridiculous. The stuff couldn’t even stop me coughing, let alone enable me to carry out terrorist atrocities.

So I hope Joel Mombrea wins his lawsuit, and that his win highlights the increasingly absurd, inconvenient and degrading procedures we travellers have to endure as ‘reward’ for continuing to give airlines and airports our business during these straitened economic times.

1. Conical hats are the opium of the travel industry. Without live conical hat-making and hat giveaways, no-one would have given the otherwise terrible Vietnam stand a second look. Thanks to the Hat Lady, it was mobbed.

2. There are too many hotel wholesalers in the world. How are they all making enough money to afford such huge stands?

3. No-one has told the food outlets at ExCel that there’s a recession on. £7.00 for a tiny chicken salad?

4. Costa Rica, Slovenia and the Philippines have some serious marketing nous behind them. Surprisingly, France, Italy and Croatia don’t.

5. No-one seems able or willing to make a simple out-of-the-box or hosted reservations system that’s affordable to small tour operators.

6. Everybody wants to visit Vietnam, but Vietnam seems to be trying its best to put them off.

7. Too many exhibitors think having a stand is enough, and make no effort to engage visitors, even when those visitors show an interest in their product or service.

8. Speed networking is a great idea if properly policed. If not, it’s chaos, especially when attended by nationalities to whom the queue is an alien concept.

9. WTM shows London at its worst. Either hold it in spring, or rotate it around more pleasant European capitals (ie most of them) to showcase Europe.

10. In 2010 I will take fewer brochures and more conical hats, stay in a vaguely habitable hotel, and try not to get bronchitis on day 1…

After our successful and enjoyable trip to Singapore for ITB Asia a couple of weeks ago, next week we’ll be in London for one of the world’s biggest travel trade fairs, World Travel Market.

The event takes place at the ExCel exhibition centre in London’s Docklands (I for one wish it was still at the old Earl’s Court venue) from 09-12 November, and we’ll be on the Vietnam stand (AS7200 in the Asia section).

If you’re there, feel free to come over for a chat and to try some traditional coconut candy. Look forward to seeing you there!

In the meantime, check out our exhibitor profile on the WTM website.

Ace HCMC listings mag The Word currently has a very unusual story on its website, about Hanoi renaming 36 of its streets after international cities.

“Each of these streets will feature the architecture and culture of its namesake country. The change would be made in an effort to increase aesthetic appeal and create some unique character for Hanoi. It would also be used to promote tourism and the city as an international shopping centre.”

Have you ever heard anything quite as bizarre as this? I’d love a pint of whatever the person behind this idea was drinking when they came up with it. In what way could this possibly help tourism to Hanoi? “Hey, they’ve got a street named after London, and they’ve knocked down some old Vietnamese buildings there and put up a replica of Carnaby St. Let’s go!”

However, before we all panic about the charm of poor old Hanoi taking yet another kick in the teeth, the article contains a proviso:

“Officials say it will not be easy because of the documents and processing required, as well as the lack of space.”

Which means, it ain’t gonna happen. Phew, that’s a relief…

It’s one of the biggest clichés in travel – if you want to know the best places to eat, drink or shop, ask a local. Tripadvisor forums are full of people looking for restaurants “where the locals eat”, or for markets “where the locals shop”.

But after nearly seven years in Vietnam I’ve come to realise that this is, basically, the wrong approach to take. I refer you to my blog post of yesterday, in which I reported a well-meaning but essentially clueless attempt to establish the top 100 places in HCMC- the restaurant and entertainment lists just contained places that the locals would recommend to tourists and expats, and bore no resemblance to the average foreigner’s list of hot addresses.

The Vietnamese are generally pretty narrowminded when it comes to eating and drinking – most of them would never dare try non-Vietnamese food, and expat bars are seen as “social evils”. Go to where the locals eat, and you may well end up in a cheap com binh dan shop, eating lukewarm, unhygienic mystery meat. Ask an expat, and you’re more likely to get suitable advice. Neither side is right or wrong; we just have different tastes. Ask a local where to go for a beach break, and most will tell you Vung Tau, which is the last place you should go for a beach break! Personally I love Phu Quoc for its peace and quiet; many Vietnamese people I’ve met say it is “boring”. Ask a local where to go for a drink, and they’ll send you to an overpriced Vietnamese café, or an equally overpriced hotel bar, and you’ll miss out on some of the city’s friendly expat watering holes. Shop where the locals shop in Saigon, and you’ll either end up in some grimy suburban wet market, or some hideous shopping mall pumping out deafening techno music, whilst we expats have Aladdin’s caves such as Saigon Square and Antique Street to ourselves. Chalk and cheese.

I also know plenty of Vietnamese who regularly eat at great little local restaurants but who would never recommend them to tourists or expats because “is not for foreigner” – instead they would point visitors in the direction of tourist restaurants such as Lemongrass or Vietnam House, which offer sanitised versions of local dishes at premium prices. These same people wouldn’t eat at a French restaurant or drink in an expat bar because “is only for foreigner”, as if there were some kind of apartheid in place!

“Ask a local” isn’t just wrong in Vietnam. I lived in London for nine years, spending most of it working for an inbound tour operator which employed a lot of young foreign staff. They all knew London far better than me, and any visitor to the city would have got far more useful information and tips from them than they would from any of us local staff. Follow the locals in a UK city and you’ll most likely end up in McDonalds.

Equally, when I went to China in 2007, I chose restaurants based on Tripadvisor recommendations from expats and visitors, and was never disappointed. When my Chinese guide made the choice, the food was poor and the surroundings less than salubrious.

It’s often the case that expats know their adopted cities better than the natives. Why? Well, with no tradition or family in the city, they have to socialise more to establish a social network and make friends, so naturally they go out more and explore the city. They often have more free time and spare cash. They also see the city from a different, more objective viewpoint, and have no cultural or regional bias. They also understand what fellow foreigners are genuinely looking for and which places they will like.

Still not convinced? OK, compare and contrast The Guide (ancient, venerable Vietnamese listings mag) with The Word, a stylish and well-written expat what’s on guide. The Guide’s food & drink listings have hardly changed since 2002 and still feature places that closed a long time ago; check The Word’s listings and you’ll find an authoritative list of the latest restaurants and bars, both local and international.

The basic truth is that locals, especially in Vietnam, will send you where they think you should go. Sadly, Vietnam’s destination marketing is based on this concept. But if you want to go somewhere where you will genuinely enjoy yourself, ask an expat or an experienced tourist!

Thanh Nien News reports today that Vietnam is being advertised on ten London black cabs, from 3rd September.

Not a bad idea in itself – London taxis cover a lot of miles per day and their advertisements do get noticed. But the choice of images – particularly that of women in ao dai - is not such a good idea. “Hey, they have women in long dresses in Vietnam, let’s go!” I think not.

Further evidence that destination marketing in Vietnam is still tied up with a hidebound notion that culture sells. It does sell, but to a decent sized market of one-off visitors. Too much of Vietnam’s tourism marketing seems to be selling a 2-week boot camp in Vietnamese culture & history.

Look at really successful tourism marketing campaigns, such as Amazing Thailand or Malaysia, Truly Asia – sure, they include images of the country’s cultural icons, but more importantly, they show images of FOREIGN PEOPLE ENJOYING THEMSELVES, four words which are as close to a definition of what tourism should be about as you can get. The Thailand and Malaysia campaigns aren’t just about Thailand and Malaysia, they’re also about YOU the visitor, and that’s something Vietnam isn’t doing well at the moment.

This country has great restaurants, golf courses and beaches, so why isn’t it selling them?