Why it looks as if everybody in Australia is travelling to Vietnam | Vietnam holidays

Georgia Quinn is adamant that Vietnam has been slept on as a vacation vacation spot. The lifestyle-based content material creator says she has beloved the nation since she first visited as a backpacker 15 years in the past. “It wasn’t off the beaten path but it definitely wasn’t as popular as, say, Thailand or Bali,” she says.

That’s altering.

“Everyone” Quinn has spoken to has both simply returned to Australia from Vietnam or has plans to go to, she says. On her newest journey final month she was greatly surprised by what number of new developments had sprung up within the coastal metropolis of Da Nang. “It seems like that’s becoming … I’d almost call it like the Gold Coast of Vietnam,” she says.

The variety of Australians she ran into throughout her two-week vacation additionally stood out: “It doesn’t surprise me at all that people are finally realising that it’s such an amazing place to go.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics knowledge exhibits {that a} decade in the past Vietnam was the fifth most typical south-east Asian vacation spot for short-term abroad journey. By 2024 it had jumped up two spots to grow to be the third most visited nation within the area, overtaking Singapore and Malaysia. The whole variety of Australian residents coming back from brief journeys to Vietnam has greater than doubled since 2016, from 246,000 to 528,000 this yr.

A graphic show Australians’ trips to south-east Asia

The variety of passengers flying to Vietnam on Jetstar has elevated by greater than 30% since 2023, with the airline providing 15% extra flights. The journey aggregator Expedia has additionally skilled year-on-year progress in lodging searches for cities together with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc from 2025 to 2026.

“I’ve seen a lot of Australians, increasingly, visiting Vietnam,” says Dr Truc Le, a senior lecturer in advertising and marketing and tourism at Griffith University. “And I think it’s not accidental.”

He cites a “very strong alignment” between what Australian travellers need and what Vietnam gives.

People nonetheless need to journey regardless of world uncertainty and cost-of-living pressures, Le says. That means, as a substitute of long-haul journeys to “iconic” locations equivalent to Paris or Venice, locations nearer to dwelling are extra viable. Price-to-quality ratio is essential to Australians, Le says, and Vietnam gives “premium experiences at mid-range prices”.

The Australian greenback has additionally maintained significant buying power in Vietnam. Indexed to alternate charges in 2025, the Australian greenback has skilled explicit progress towards the Vietnamese dong in contrast with the US greenback and the euro.

currency graphic

An occasion coordinator, Mandy Lan, 25, selected Vietnam primarily for its affordability. Far from a typical backpacking expertise, “I was going to Michelin star restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” she says. She additionally took benefit of Vietnam’s respected tailoring trade, commissioning 5 custom-made clothes for $250. Lan’s two-week journey on the finish of 2025, minus flights, value lower than $1,500. Quinn budgeted $6,000 for her and her companion, flights inclusive, for his or her long-awaited vacation collectively.

Although Vietnam’s costs are a straightforward draw, Le says travellers are additionally on the lookout for genuine experiences that aren’t overcrowded. Quinn says that it isn’t as if there aren’t any touristy issues to do in Ho Chi Minh City however it’s such a bustling metropolis that guests can mix in. She discovered herself within the retailers of many native designers, having fun with the up to date “Y2K” model and studying the tales behind the manufacturers. She seen that many had been newly established.

Duong Dong, a co-founder of the journey firm Broken Compass, attributes this trendiness to Vietnam’s younger inhabitants – the median age is 33. Le says youthful generations are reshaping how Vietnam’s distinct cultural identification is expressed. This identification is “a blend of deep-rooted traditions, regional diversity and a socialist-oriented market system”.

While it may well current inconsistent service high quality and regulatory complexities inside the tourism trade, Le says this enhances authenticity as enterprise practices are “more relationship-based”.

Two co-founders of Urbanist Travel, Chau Nguyen and Brian Letwin, level to the inflow of millennial and older gen Z Vietnamese who’re returning to Vietnam to determine their very own companies. They are taking the issues they’ve realized from worldwide universities and eating places and creating one thing new, Letwin says.

Linh Phan, the founding father of the journey firm Hidden Saigon, says: “You also have a diaspora community from the second generation who are taking over their parents’ restaurants and changing them up.”

All 4 guides agree that this has remodeled Vietnam. Letwin describes the brand new meals, vogue, music and golf equipment as having a “nonconformist” feeling.

This cultural shift appeals to travellers, Letwin says. Phan says she by no means anticipated to see vacationers at her native espresso retailers however now they’re “full of them”.

Australians specifically are “fascinated” by dynamic expressions of cultural identification, Le says.

The detrimental affect of over-tourism on Bali’s setting and tradition looms closely over Vietnam’s flourishing journey trade – it is among the fastest-growing sectors of the economic system. But Phan finds solace in the truth that “trendy” native venues know their true viewers. “Tourists and expats come and go but it’s the locals who, you know, make their business,” she says.