In 2025, Vietnam surpassed 20 million international arrivals—a historic milestone confirming its rise as one of Asia’s most dynamic destinations. Yet for nations entering maturity, records are not endpoints. They are inflection points.
The question is no longer how many visitors Vietnam can attract. It is what kind of tourism future it chooses to build.
If the country continues chasing volume, growth may persist—but margins, ecosystems, and cultural integrity will face mounting pressure. If Vietnam seeks global elevation and long-term resilience through 2045, it must pivot—from quantity to quality, from extraction to creation, from expansion to refinement.
This is the era of Luxury & Green.
Luxury, in this context, is not extravagance. It is refinement, personalization, and cultural depth.
Green is not symbolic sustainability. It is ESG embedded in design, operations, and shared prosperity.
Vietnam’s rare advantage lies in its 4,000-year-old riverine civilization shaped by trade, agriculture, maritime exchange, and art. Few Asian nations possess such layered cultural geography across rivers and seas. The task ahead is strategic organization of that advantage.
One enterprise exemplifying this shift is LuxGroup. For over two decades, it has advanced the philosophy “Luxury is Culture – Delivering Happiness,” competing not on price but on narrative, not on scale but on depth.
Its 8P system—Passion, Purpose, People, Planet, Profit, Place, Partnership, Prosperity—redefines profitability and preservation as aligned objectives. Sustainability is not external to business; it is its foundation.
More than 70% of Vietnam’s tourism assets are connected to rivers and seas. Yet water-based tourism remains underleveraged. The vision of Vietnam Waterways proposes an integrated river–sea ecosystem connecting heritage corridors nationwide—a waterborne equivalent of a national airline.
At the heart of this transformation stands Amiral Cruises for Presidents on the Saigon River and Southern coastline. In 1911, a young Nguyễn Tất Thành departed from Nha Rong Wharf aboard the Amiral Latouche-Tréville seeking independence and freedom. In 2026, 115 years later, a new Amiral sails to express cultural confidence and economic maturity.
Southern Vietnam—sunlit year-round, historically cosmopolitan, strategically located—provides an ideal stage for boutique heritage cruising. Here, cuisine narrates Mekong agriculture, performances reinterpret Saigon’s cultural memory, and design blends Art Deco Indochine aesthetics with modern sustainability.
This is not mass tourism.
It is tourism of depth.
Luxury & Green becomes more than branding—it becomes economic architecture. It extends stays, elevates spending, disperses flows, and strengthens local supply chains.
To achieve 2045 ambitions, Vietnam must accelerate through five pillars: Green infrastructure, Digital transformation, Global integration, Proud cultural identity, and Go Happiness as the ultimate KPI.
Vietnam now stands at a strategic threshold.
From the voyage of 1911 to the horizon of Vietnam Waterways 2045, its rivers and seas have symbolized aspiration. The aspiration for independence has been fulfilled. The aspiration today is sustainable prosperity.
If Vietnam embraces Luxury & Green—more refined, more responsible, more profound—its tourism industry will not merely expand.
It will mature.