Travel Company in Vietnam: Resilience, Survival and Strategic Growth in the New Global Tourism Era (2026)

It’s no longer about finding a travel company in Vietnam with the best price, or one that appears on a “top 10” list. What international partners actually need is a business that can survive, adapt, and grow over the long term. Survival is the new competitive advantage.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point 2025 and Four Scenarios for the Future of Travel and Tourism 2025, global tourism has recovered strongly from the pandemic, but it no longer operates by the old rules. Companies like Phan Van DMC, with sustainable structures and direct control over their value chain, are the ones positioned to lead through the next decade.

Based on two WEF reports published in 2025, Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point and Four Scenarios for the Future of Travel and Tourism, the global T&T industry experienced its most severe shock in modern history, while simultaneously entering a period of strong recovery and comprehensive restructuring. This is not simply a “post-crisis bounce.” It is a strategic turning point for the entire industry.

In 2020, global T&T GDP collapsed from USD 10.3 trillion (2019) to USD 5.3 trillion, a near-50% decline, reflecting border closures and movement restrictions at a scale the industry had never experienced before. The recovery came faster than most expected. By 2023, sector GDP had reached approximately USD 9.9 trillion, with projections to surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2024 at around USD 10.9 trillion. By end-2023, T&T represented roughly 10% of global GDP and supported over 330 million jobs. Global travel spending exceeded USD 7 trillion in 2024, confirming that pent-up demand had fully re-ignited.

That said, recovery has not been uniform. The Middle East and Western/Southern Europe surpassed 2019 levels by end-2023, while parts of Asia-Pacific were still significantly below pre-pandemic benchmarks. Global international arrivals in 2024 reached roughly 80% of pre-COVID-19 figures, though markets like Japan had already exceeded their pre-pandemic levels. The WEF also highlights that without stronger resilience measures, the industry could face an additional USD 3–6 trillion in losses by 2030 from pandemic recurrence, geopolitical conflict, or climate-related disruption. Intra-ASEAN tourism has grown its share significantly during this period, a signal that regionalization is accelerating and favoring well-positioned operators in Southeast Asia.

The pandemic didn’t just interrupt travel flows, it fundamentally reshaped how people travel and what they want from it.

Experiences over transactions. Consumer spending has shifted strongly toward personalized, meaningful travel. Outdoor travel, wellness, ecotourism, and bleisure (combining work and leisure) are all growing fast. Bleisure is forecast to grow at around 9% CAGR through 2032. Ecotourism could achieve 14% CAGR, while sports tourism is projected to expand from USD 609 billion in 2023 to approximately USD 1.7 trillion by 2032.

The Millennial and Gen Z effect. These two groups are now driving market demand. Around 75% of travelers prioritize authentic local cultural experiences, and 69% want their spending to directly benefit local communities. Experiences, live events, and a genuine sense of “realness” matter more than ever to this demographic.

Technology as a core driver. The global travel tech market reached approximately USD 10 billion in 2024 and is expected to double by 2033. AI, IoT, biometrics, and augmented reality are changing how travel products are designed, sold, and delivered. Contactless technology and real-time personalization are becoming the new baseline standard.

The sustainability imperative. T&T currently accounts for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that could rise to 11–15% by 2034 without significant reform. Renewable energy in T&T operations represents only 4.5–10% of the current mix. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) remains below 1%. Future growth will be tightly connected to how well the industry manages its green transition.

The workforce challenge. The industry expects to need more than 100 million additional jobs by 2034, while turnover rates in many markets have exceeded 50%. Around 80% of tourism businesses are SMEs, and half of them feared insolvency during the pandemic. That makes the structural resilience of smaller operators a systemic industry concern, not just an individual business one.

The WEF projects that by 2034, T&T could contribute approximately USD 16 trillion to global GDP, representing over 11% of the world economy. Global travel spending could reach USD 14 trillion, with around 30 billion trips taken annually. The sector is forecast to grow 1.5 times faster than the overall global economy from 2023 to 2033, with Asia identified as the leading engine. To meet that demand, the world will need around 7 million additional hotel rooms, 15 million more flights annually, and 300,000 additional cruise berths by 2034.

COVID-19 didn’t just cut off international arrivals for over two years, it exposed structural weaknesses in many businesses that had been invisible during the years of growth.

Over-reliance on intermediaries. Many travel companies in Vietnam operated by purchasing services from other suppliers, vehicles, hotels, guides, without owning or directly controlling any of them. When cash flow stopped, contracts were cancelled, and partners reduced capacity, these businesses had almost no tools to maneuver with. Their model depended entirely on conditions they couldn’t control.

Asset-light with no financial buffer. A lean cost structure looks efficient during growth, but when revenue drops to zero while fixed costs remain, closure becomes a matter of time. Companies without sufficient financial reserves simply couldn’t hold on long enough for the market to recover.

Over-concentration in a single source market. Businesses built almost entirely around one outbound market, one country, one key agency relationship, had no diversification when that market closed. The entire operation froze simultaneously, with no alternative income to fall back on.

In 2020, global T&T GDP collapsed from USD 10.3 trillion (2019) to USD 5.3 trillion, a near-50% decline, reflecting border closures and movement restrictions at a scale the industry had never experienced before. The recovery came faster than most expected. By 2023, sector GDP had reached approximately USD 9.9 trillion, with projections to surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2024 at around USD 10.9 trillion. By end-2023, T&T represented roughly 10% of global GDP and supported over 330 million jobs. Global travel spending exceeded USD 7 trillion in 2024, confirming that pent-up demand had fully re-ignited.

Drawing on WEF analysis of resilience factors in global tourism, five key elements determine a company’s survival rate. Applied to the Vietnam context, each one becomes especially concrete.

Financial Resilience A strong enough financial base to maintain operations during extended periods of reduced revenue. This isn’t just working capital — it’s a cost structure that can flex, and a genuine ability to reallocate resources under pressure without losing operational continuity.

Operational Control The more links a company owns or controls in the value chain — transportation, partner networks, internal operations teams — the higher its adaptability. When markets shift, these companies can adjust pricing, capacity, and product far faster than pure intermediaries can.

Workforce Adaptability Tourism workforces experience significant volatility. Companies with a committed, multi-skilled team that can shift roles during a crisis are the ones that maintain service quality when the market returns, and that quality consistency is what clients remember.

Digital Capability Technology is not just a marketing channel. It determines response speed, customer data management, and operational efficiency. For cross-border partnerships, the ability to work remotely and integrate digital processes is now a basic requirement to function as a genuine international travel company in Vietnam.

Strategic Partnerships Long-term relationships with international partners, local suppliers, and financial institutions allow companies to share risk and expand market access when conditions become favorable again. The relationships built and maintained through difficult periods tend to be the most durable ones.

It is the combination of all five factors that separates a company that simply doesn’t close from one that can grow sustainably over the next 10–20 years. As Vietnam continues recovering and integrating more deeply into the global tourism supply chain, company survival rate is no longer just a historical data point — it is a forward indicator of genuine growth capability.

After two major global tourism shocks, SARS and COVID-19, the Vietnam market saw deep changes in its business landscape. In that context, Phan Van DMC is a concrete example of a company that survived through internal structural strength and strategic transformation, rather than simply waiting for better market conditions to arrive. Instead of contracting and waiting, the company chose to evolve with each wave of industry disruption, moving from a local ground transportation provider to a Full-Service DMC with deeper supply chain control and a growing role as a strategic partner for international agencies.

In an industry where business lifecycles are often short and volatile, operating for over 20 years is a meaningful signal. Phan Van DMC sits in the top 5–10% of Vietnamese travel businesses by operational longevity, a group that has navigated the global financial crisis, shifting inbound market dynamics across different source countries, visa policy changes, and two pandemics with direct impact on the entire tourism ecosystem.

Those 20-plus years were not a linear growth story. They included multiple difficult cycles. Survival in this context doesn’t just mean “still open”, it means maintaining a functioning operation, preserving the core team, and holding key partner relationships together through the hard periods. That track record of navigating crises is what makes a company a genuinely top-rated travel company in Vietnam in substance, not just by marketing ranking.

The core difference in Phan Van DMC’s model is its asset-backed structure. The company owns and operates its own vehicle fleet, and has built a nationwide network of hotel, restaurant, and operations partners. Direct control over the critical links in the supply chain reduces the risk of service breakdowns, exactly the kind that brought many businesses down during the pandemic.

Beyond physical assets, people are also part of the “structural asset.” A stable, experienced team that understands the operational processes and local market creates the flexibility to handle changing situations without depending on outside parties to respond first.

Unlike a travel intermediary that depends entirely on external suppliers, the Full-Service DMC model allows deeper control over quality, pricing, and timing. In volatile periods, that control directly determines survival: when one link has a problem, the company can adjust internally rather than waiting on a third party. Phan Van DMC also offers a white-label operations model for international tour operators, acting as the logistics and ground operations backbone, allowing foreign agencies to expand their Vietnam product without building their own local infrastructure, while maintaining brand consistency and service standards throughout.

In the WEF’s “Tech Acceleration” scenario, technology becomes the dominant force reshaping tourism. In that environment, response speed and digital integration aren’t nice-to-have, they’re the competitive edge that separates a partner worth having from one that slows you down.

Phan Van DMC has integrated flexible workflows with international partners through an online appointments and consultation system, allowing program discussions and decision-making to happen remotely without geographic constraints. Quoting response times have been shortened, helping partners move faster in a high-competition environment. The ability to support remote operations, handle last-minute program adjustments, and provide real-time updates makes the company far more adaptable to a market that never stops moving.

Digital capability here isn’t a marketing layer,  it is an operational foundation. In an industry where disruption can arrive at any time, from health crises to geopolitical shifts, the combination of asset-backed structure and digital adaptability is precisely what “structural resilience” looks like in practice.

In this context, finding a travel company in Vietnam is no longer simply about comparing prices or consulting a “top 10” list. Rankings may reflect short-term brand awareness, but they don’t tell you how a company has held up through multiple crises, or whether it has the structure to be a real partner over the years ahead.

The 2025 WEF reports share a consistent conclusion: global tourism is at a “turning point”, a strategic moment where growth and volatility will travel together, and where resilience will determine long-term market position.