Notable numbers
Thailand's tourism industry is facing increasing competitive pressure from Vietnam, as this neighboring country promotes infrastructure development and expands accommodation capacity. This is the assessment of Mr. Bill Barnett, CEO of C9 Hotelworks Hotel Consulting Company - shared with local newspapers.
According to Mr. Barnett, Vietnam is like a "rising star" in the region, with an impressive growth rate in the past decade. This country has attracted more and more international visitors, especially from China and Japan, while gradually gaining market share from Thailand.
In 2025, Vietnam welcomed 21.2 million international visitors, an increase of 20.4% compared to the same period. Meanwhile, Thailand recorded a decrease of 7.2% (32.9 million visitors). This expert said that Vietnam currently owns a very large number of hotel rooms and still has a strongly developing supply.
Vietnam has about 780,000 rooms and 38,000 registered accommodation establishments. Meanwhile, Thailand has more than 704,000 rooms and 16,000 accommodation establishments.
A notable competitive advantage is that room rates in Vietnam are lower. On average, hotel room rates in Vietnam are about 20% cheaper than in Thailand.
In the general market segment, the average hotel room price in urban areas of Vietnam is about 116 USD, compared to 129 USD in Bangkok. At resorts in Vietnam, the average price is 118 USD, much lower than 173 USD in Phuket.
In the high-end hotel segment, room rates in urban areas and resorts of Vietnam are 181 USD and 299 USD respectively. Meanwhile, the corresponding figures for Bangkok and Phuket are 226 USD and 360 USD.
Vietnam's lower costs are mainly due to cheaper labor and food prices. Airfares to Vietnam are also more competitive thanks to the strong development of the low-cost airline market.
However, this Thai expert noted that Vietnam's tourism and hotel services have not reached the level of Thailand - a country with many decades of experience, while Vietnam is still in the early stages of tourism development.
Great advantages from infrastructure development
An important difference that is helping Vietnam create a gap with Thailand is the very rapid pace of infrastructure development.
Vietnam is deploying the construction of 12 new airports and proposing a high-speed railway network. The rearrangement of administrative units from 63 provinces and cities to 34 aims to streamline the apparatus and promote economic development at level two and level three destinations.
Conversely, Thailand is facing delays in many infrastructure projects, including a new highway and airport in Phuket, as well as a high-speed railway connecting three airports.
In addition, Thailand is still heavily dependent on traditional destinations such as Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, while there is no clear plan to develop new destinations.
Thai experts believe that the private sector of the land of golden temples is operating well, but the state sector needs to keep up to support development, especially in terms of new infrastructure and attracting foreign investment.
Not only in the tourism sector, some economic experts also warn that Thailand is at risk of being caught up by Vietnam in terms of economic scale in a short time if it does not reform strongly.
Mr. Aat Pisanwanich, an independent economist, said that Vietnam has exceeded 500 billion USD. Notably, both foreign direct investment and export turnover of Vietnam have been higher than Thailand.
Although the number of high-quality universities in Vietnam is still less than in Thailand, in the next 5 years Hanoi aims to bring universities into the top 300 in the world. In terms of education quality, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics is ranked in the top 500 in the world, on par with Chulalongkorn University of Thailand.
In terms of per capita income, Malaysia is considered a developed country with about 15,000 USD/person/year. Meanwhile, Thailand has maintained a level of about 7,000 USD/person/year for a long time. Vietnam also has a population advantage with about 100 million people, compared to 66 million people in Thailand.
