How Vietnam Is Turning Tourism Into a Green Growth Engine

Vietnam is rapidly recasting its tourism boom as a laboratory for sustainable development, blending cultural preservation, environmental commitments and community-led projects to reshape how visitors experience the country.

From Volume to Value in a Fast-Growing Market

Publicly available tourism data show that Vietnam has moved from a post-pandemic rebound to a period of sustained growth, with international arrivals climbing from the low tens of millions in 2023 to significantly higher volumes by 2025. Policy documents and sector analyses indicate that national strategy is now shifting from chasing record visitor counts to prioritising quality, resilience and sustainability across destinations.

The country’s overall development orientation, including a green growth strategy through 2030 and a net-zero emissions target for 2050, is increasingly reflected in tourism planning. Recent reports highlight calls to align new tourism investment with lower-carbon infrastructure, stricter environmental standards and stronger links between tourism spending and local livelihoods, particularly in rural and coastal areas.

Analysts note that this strategic pivot is taking place as global travellers show heightened interest in responsible travel. Surveys of regional markets suggest that visitors to Vietnam are among those most likely to seek eco-conscious options, providing both a market incentive and a reputational opportunity for the country to position itself as a sustainable tourism leader in Southeast Asia.

Within this context, national tourism authorities and industry bodies are promoting a more diversified product mix, including nature-based experiences, cultural routes and community-based tourism, intended to spread benefits beyond a handful of overcrowded hotspots and reduce pressure on fragile environments.

National Pledges on Plastics, Green Standards and Net-Zero Goals

Environmental commitments are becoming a central pillar of Vietnam’s tourism policy. In 2023 and 2024, the Vietnam Tourism Association and partner organisations announced pledges to phase out single-use plastics in tourism operations by 2030, encouraging hotels, tour operators and restaurants to integrate plastic reduction targets into their business plans and staff training.

According to domestic media coverage, this agenda is supported by pilot programmes in destinations that struggle with waste generated by rapid visitor growth, such as coastal provinces and riverine hotspots. These initiatives pair awareness campaigns for visitors with practical steps, including refill stations for drinking water, promotion of reusable containers and expanded waste sorting and recycling schemes around popular attractions.

On the policy side, research on Vietnam’s tourism governance points to a growing use of certification and green labelling to steer the market. Hotel and resort operators are increasingly encouraged to obtain recognised environmental certifications and to comply with national criteria that evaluate energy use, water management, waste treatment and engagement with surrounding communities.

Longer-term, tourism is expected to contribute to the country’s net-zero ambitions by favouring low-carbon transport options, supporting conservation projects that protect carbon-rich ecosystems such as mangroves and forests, and backing renewable energy deployment in tourism-intensive regions. These broad objectives are still being translated into specific measures, but recent planning documents frame sustainable tourism as a “lever” for both economic competitiveness and climate resilience.

Culture at the Core: Heritage Cities and Living Traditions

Vietnam’s effort to reshape tourism also leans heavily on its cultural assets, from historic cities to craft villages and highland festivals. In many cases, sustainability is defined not only in environmental terms but also as the long-term safeguarding of heritage and local identity amid rising visitor numbers.

In the central region, the UNESCO-recognised ancient town of Hoi An is being developed as an eco-city and cultural tourism hub within a master plan that extends to 2050. Publicly available planning summaries describe priorities such as conserving traditional architecture, limiting high-impact construction in sensitive areas and promoting low-waste, low-plastic tourism services. The town’s long-running pedestrian and bicycle-friendly policies are being linked with new green tourism initiatives, including incentives for non-motorised mobility and cleaner river transport.

Hue, another heritage centre, has set its sights on becoming one of Vietnam’s leading green tourism cities by 2030, with a roadmap that includes plastic-reduction models at community sites, environmental education for residents and visitors, and gradual moves toward “net zero tourism” by mid-century. Local programmes have rolled out plastic-free rest stops, refill points and a “green location” search function in a municipal app to guide visitors toward low-impact service providers.

Beyond major cities, smaller cultural destinations are experimenting with sustainable models. In craft villages near Hanoi, for example, new cultural centres and museums have adopted designs that combine traditional aesthetics with energy-efficient architecture. Tourism development projects in long-established woodworking and pottery communities emphasise training for local artisans, cooperative business structures and controlled visitor flows to avoid overwhelming local life while bringing in new income from guided visits and workshops.

Nature-Based and Community Tourism in Rural Regions

Vietnam’s diverse landscapes, from the northern mountains to the Mekong Delta, are central to its sustainable tourism story. Environmental regulations classify many forests, wetlands and coastal zones as special-use or conservation areas, and tourism projects in these locations are increasingly framed as tools for both protection and poverty reduction.

In the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, for instance, recent feature coverage highlights community-based tourism that leverages the cultural mix of Kinh, Khmer and Cham communities and the biodiversity of sanctuaries such as Tra Su Cajuput Forest. Operators there promote low-impact boat tours, birdwatching and homestays that channel income to local households while reinforcing the value of wetland conservation.

Similar models are emerging in northern highland provinces such as Ha Giang and Lao Cai, where ethnic minority villages host visitors in homestays and offer trekking, handicraft workshops and participation in traditional markets. Academic and policy studies on these initiatives point to benefits such as new income streams and support for traditional crafts, but they also warn of risks related to cultural commodification, uneven revenue sharing and pressure on local infrastructure.

To address these challenges, newer community-based tourism projects are more likely to include participatory planning, capacity-building for local cooperatives and clearer guidelines on visitor numbers and environmental impact. Development partners and domestic agencies increasingly use these pilot sites as reference points for drafting national recommendations on how to scale up rural tourism without undermining social cohesion or ecological integrity.

Local Empowerment and the Next Phase of Sustainable Travel

Local empowerment is emerging as a thread that connects many of Vietnam’s sustainable tourism experiments. Public information about donor-funded programmes such as Swiss-backed sustainable tourism projects and gender-responsive agriculture and tourism initiatives in mountainous regions indicates that training, market access and leadership opportunities for women and ethnic minorities are now central goals, not just secondary benefits.

These programmes typically focus on helping small tourism enterprises manage finances, meet quality and safety standards, and market their products to domestic and international audiences. They also encourage partnerships between communities and larger tour operators under clearer contractual terms, with an emphasis on fair pricing, transparent revenue sharing and visitor education about local customs and environmental norms.

In coastal and urban destinations, digital tools are playing a growing role in linking sustainability and empowerment. City platforms that highlight “green” businesses, booking systems that prioritise certified establishments and tourism campaigns that promote off-peak or lesser-known destinations are designed to spread visitor spending more evenly and reduce crowding at iconic sites.

Looking ahead, analysts describe Vietnam’s approach as a work in progress, marked by ambitious national targets and a patchwork of local experiments. Yet taken together, moves to reduce plastic, adopt green standards, safeguard heritage and invest in community-based tourism suggest that the country is determined to ensure its travel boom supports culture, nature and local communities rather than undermining them.