Reviving winter tourism in North Central Vietnam

Despite abundant potential in terms of coastlines, heritage, and infrastructure, tourism in North Central Vietnam has not escaped seasonality. Regional linkages, product innovation, and attracting investment are expected to open a new path for winter tourism.

At Cua Lo Beach in Nghe An, the Foreign-Invested Enterprises Association (VAFIE), together with the Tourism Associations of Ha Tinh and Nghe An, organized the forum “Connecting to Promote Winter Tourism Development in the Bắc Trung Bộ Provinces.”

Identifying the development paradox

According to Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Chairman of VAFIE, the Bắc Trung Bộ region—stretching from Thanh Hóa to Huế—has the conditions to develop tourism at scale. He cited advantages including a long coastline, diverse ecosystems, rich cultural heritage, and a strategic transport position along National Highway 1A and the North–South Expressway.

In recent years, tourism infrastructure has advanced with participation from major groups such as FLC Group, Muong Thanh Hospitality, VinWonders, and Laguna Lang Co. However, assessments indicate that development still does not match the region’s potential and has not become a flagship economic sector.

A key paradox is that, aside from the four peak summer months, most seaside accommodations fall short of occupancy, wasting substantial investment resources. The seasonality also limits efficient tourism exploitation and undermines sustainability.

From this situation, VAFIE set three core issues for the forum: why regional tourism develops slowly despite existing policies; what solutions can unlock bottlenecks such as regional linkage, distinctive products, and human resources; and how to develop new tourism formats—including golf, MICE, and culture-spiritual tourism—to increase demand in the low season.

Linking to break the “seasonality disease”

Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of the National Administration of Tourism, said Bắc Trung Bộ’s tourism currently relies heavily on summer coastal tourism, while winter becomes a “trough” due to cold and rainy weather.

To address this, he said a shift in development thinking is needed—especially to strengthen inter-provincial linkages and product innovation. The forum highlighted three pillars: institutions, infrastructure, and innovation. Institutions should continue to create conditions for businesses and investors; infrastructure must be connected; and innovation is crucial to creating new products and increasing destination appeal, particularly in the off-season.

Tran Quoc Lam, Vice Chairman of VAFIE and Chairman of the Ha Tinh Tourism Association, argued that preventing a “winter lull” requires genuine regional linkage. He said building a common brand—“Winter in Bắc Trung Bộ”—organizing region-wide events and festivals in the low season, and attracting strategic investors to develop year-round tourism products are essential.

Representatives of local tourism authorities agreed that the approach should move from isolated development to close collaboration, focusing on cross-provincial product chains rather than standalone slogans.

International and transport perspectives

From an international perspective, representatives of Kocham (Korean Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam) suggested that to attract off-season visitors, regions should create loop tours linking provinces and cooperate with influential travel companies in the international market.

Railways were also highlighted as a supporting factor. A representative of Vinh Railway Transport Joint Stock Company said the unit is upgrading service quality, refurbishing carriages, and developing tourist trains such as “Heritage Connection in the Central” to diversify regional tourism products.

Conclusion and forum assessment

Forum discussions concluded that the seasonality problem is not new, but it remains unresolved. While many Asian destinations have restructured products to support year-round tourism, Bắc Trung Bộ still relies heavily on summer coastal tourism.

The discussions pointed to market organization as the core issue: the region lacks a strong inter-provincial coordination mechanism, lacks investors to lead differentiated products, and lacks a mindset that the off-season can be used to restructure the tourism industry.