Identifying "bottlenecks
Khanh Hoa is one of the localities with impressive tourism growth. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VHTTDL) of Khanh Hoa province informed that in August, the whole province is estimated to welcome about 2.8 million tourists, an increase of more than 43.5% compared to the same period in 2025.
In which, international visitors are estimated at 850,000, an increase of nearly 66.7% compared to the same period. Total tourism revenue in the month is estimated at 8,750 billion VND, an increase of more than 7.1% compared to the same period. Average room occupancy rate in the whole province is estimated at 78%.
In general, in 8 months of 2026, Khanh Hoa is estimated to welcome more than 18 million tourist arrivals, an increase of nearly 40% compared to the same period in 2025. Of which, international visitors are estimated at more than 6.3 million arrivals, an increase of more than 67.9%. Total tourism revenue of the whole province in 8 months is estimated at 60,893.1 billion VND, an increase of nearly 19.2% compared to the same period. Average room occupancy rate is estimated at about 65.43%.
But behind that impressive figure, there are still bottlenecks that need to be overcome. At the workshop "Building human resources - Key to bringing Khanh Hoa to sustainable development" organized by Lao Dong Newspaper in coordination with Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, Ms. Hoang Thi Phong Thu - Chairwoman of the Member Council of Pegas Misr Vietnam Travel Co., Ltd. said that one of the problems of Khanh Hoa tourism is human resources.
According to Ms. Thu, after 15 years, Khanh Hoa tourism has developed strongly, not only attracting Russian tourists but also becoming a destination for major markets such as China, Korea and India. In particular, the Nha Trang brand is increasingly recognized in the Russian market through tourism fairs and charter flights operated by travel businesses.
However, Ms. Thu said that the shortage of human resources, especially Russian language instructors, has become a prolonged bottleneck. Businesses continuously have to look for personnel in Quang Ninh, Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City to bring to Nha Trang to work, and at the same time support additional living and travel expenses in addition to salaries.
While the number of visitors from the Russian market is increasing, the source of Russian-speaking tour guides may still be seriously lacking. According to Ms. Thu, having a new tour guide card only meets legal requirements; more importantly, it is the foreign language proficiency, information transmission ability and situation handling ability of tour guides.
The tour guide is the person who directly introduces to tourists about Khanh Hoa's culture, history, landscape, cuisine and people. Even when complaints arise during the tour, the tour guide's handling skills can contribute to changing the tourist's experience and perception of the destination.
To develop sustainable tourism, Khanh Hoa needs to focus on training foreign language skills, especially rare foreign languages, in addition to English" - Ms. Thu said.
Reality in many localities shows that although the number of visitors increases year by year, the "bottleneck" of human resources - especially foreign language proficiency, digital skills and professionalism of local workers - is still hindering the breakthrough of destinations.
For example, in Lam Dong, the whole province currently has about 90,000 workers in the tourism sector, of which about 38,000 workers directly work at accommodation establishments, travel businesses, tourist areas and destinations, and support services. Young workers aged 18-35 account for more than 60%, and about 75% have been trained and fostered in professional skills.
However, the problem of high-quality human resources is still a challenge for many businesses. Leaders of the Lam Dong Tourism Association said that human resources with professional qualifications, foreign languages and professional skills have not yet met development needs, especially the team of international tour guides with practicing certificates, proficiency in foreign languages and digital skills.
Leaders of the Lam Dong Tourism Association said that many travel businesses are facing difficulties when needing to arrange local tour guides to serve large-scale international tourist groups, especially during the peak tourist season. This is considered one of the bottlenecks that needs to be removed soon if Lam Dong wants to expand the international tourist market.
Another locality, Phu Tho, is also having positive changes. According to Mr. Bui Xuan Truong - Deputy Director of Phu Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism - although in the first 6 months of 2026, Phu Tho welcomed more than 10.5 million visitors with revenue exceeding 10,700 billion VND, most local tourism workers have not yet undergone in-depth training. How to make people truly become professional "tourism ambassadors" right in their homeland is an urgent problem.
Unlocking from Resolution 26
According to a preliminary report by the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, our country's tourism industry has about 2.5 million workers, with 800,000 direct workers, but of which, only 45% have been trained in tourism, 55% are workers transferred from other industries (35%) and have not been trained (20%).
Notably, among 42% of workers trained in tourism, only 10% have university and postgraduate degrees, 50% have elementary, intermediate, and college degrees, and 40% are trained through short-term classes.
Meanwhile, the tourism system planning for the period 2021 - 2030, vision to 2045 sets a target that by 2030, the tourism industry needs to create about 10.5 million jobs, of which about 3.5 million are direct jobs. This is a large gap in tourism human resources that needs to be filled if we want to meet the rapid development speed of the industry.
The Vietnam National Authority of Tourism believes that when tourism enters a stage of competition by quality, the problem of tourism human resources is not the lack of unskilled labor but the lack of high-quality labor that meets international standards and can work right in a professional environment.
Resolution 26-NQ/TW of the Politburo issued on August 22, 2026 on developing Vietnamese tourism into a spearhead economic sector in the new era has identified solutions for developing human resources, businesses and the tourism community with specific tasks. In which, the Resolution emphasizes the tasks: Building a tourism human resource team that meets the requirements in terms of quantity, quality, expertise, professional skills, foreign languages, keeps up with technological development and proactively and confidently integrates internationally. Supporting and training skills for rural workers, ethnic minorities, workers in remote and isolated areas, border and island areas so that people have sustainable livelihoods from tourism, especially community tourism, improving the income of tourism workers and workers in related industries and fields.
Completing, synchronously investing and planning a network of modern tourism vocational training institutions to meet market requirements. Encouraging public-private partnerships, businesses investing in developing high-quality vocational training institutions. Ensuring output standards according to the requirements of the training program, associated with practical needs and measuring training efficiency and results.
Build a direct training linkage mechanism between state management agencies, training institutions and tourism businesses according to international professional curriculum and standards; have breakthrough remuneration policies to attract experts and high-quality personnel to work in key tourism centers and areas. Establish and effectively operate the National Tourism Skills Council including representatives of the State sector and the private sector, including research agencies and stakeholders in the tourism industry to ensure the quality of tourism vocational labor. Organize the implementation of policies to develop a network of modern vocational training institutions.
Investing in tourism human resource training, in the end, is not only to meet the demands from the development practice of the industry, but also a strategic solution to affirm the quality and competitiveness of Vietnam on the regional and world tourism map.
