Tourism Keeps Hoi An Running

The next stop on our journey through Vietnam was Hoi An. I had no idea what to expect when I got off the plane but the thing that stuck out to me the most about Hoi An was the “touristy” feel to it. For example, the restaurants felt as if they were targeted to tourists more than the ones in Hanoi as almost every resteraunt we went to had Western food on the menu. Even the hotel we stayed at was more touristy, as it was more of a resort with a pool and spa. Another general observation I had was that much more people spoke English, which was helpful because it made navigating the streets much easier but also added to the idea that Hoi An was more touristy. Because of this touristy feel to it, I felt much more comfortable in Hoi An because it was more like what I am used to when I go away.

I am still constantly amazed by the attitude of the locals towards Americans. Whenever we walked by a group, they would smile and wave and ask where we are from, and are intrigued that we are here as a huge group on a school trip. They always seem to excited to talk to us, and to have our business. For example, at BeBe tailor, almost every person in our group got at least one piece of clothing custom made, and it was obvious that they were ecstatic with the amount of business we brought them as a group. One woman who worked there even came up to me and asked when our group was leaving, and when I told her we would be leaving the next day, she looked so disappointed. This really hit me because it made me realize how much Hoi An relies on tourism to keep their economy going, and helped make sense of why the town feels so touristy; they want to draw us in as our consumption as tourists is vital to the economic success of their businesses. I also noticed how important this was through bargaining as you could easily tell how desperate they are to make the sale to us because they would chase us down the streets after bargaining just to make the sale, which shows they would rather go below their asking price than lose the sale as a whole. This just reinforced how much they rely on tourists to make purchases to help their business thrive.

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