Kong Research · Edition 2026
Of 417 Vietnamese tour and activity operators, 41 let customers book directly on their website, 9.8%. Sampled across 9 destinations.
The finding
Vietnam has an unusual shape: 86.6% of operators are online (the second highest in the region) but only 9.8% can take a booking. 2 out of 3 Vietnamese operators have a working website that cannot complete a booking. No other country in this study looks like that.
WhatsApp and messaging fill the gap: 45.1% of operators with a non-bookable website take bookings through a chat thread instead. Two whole categories (watersports and attractions) had zero bookable operators.
Vietnam also has the smallest software market measured: just six operators in the whole country run a dedicated booking platform (1.4%). And only 2 of 41 bookable operators accept a Vietnamese payment method, the lowest in the region.
Destinations
| Destination | Operators | Bookable | Bookable % | No web presence % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Nang/Hoi An | 97 | 12 | 12.4% | 16.5% |
| Hanoi/Ha Long | 91 | 10 | 11.0% | 12.1% |
| Ho Chi Minh City | 77 | 8 | 10.4% | 10.4% |
| Nha Trang | 49 | 2 | 4.1% | 12.2% |
| Phu Quoc | 34 | 3 | 8.8% | 11.8% |
| Da Lat | 30 | 1 | 3.3% | 3.3% |
| Sapa | 22 | 3 | 13.6% | 18.2% |
| Phong Nha | 11 | 2 | 18.2% highest | 27.3% |
| Ninh Binh | 6 | 0 | 0.0% lowest | 50.0% |
Categories
| Category | Operators | Share of market | Bookable | Bookable % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoor & nature | 110 | 26.4% | 15 | 13.6% |
| Food, culture & workshops | 131 | 31.4% | 14 | 10.7% |
| Boat tours & cruises | 96 | 23.0% | 9 | 9.4% |
| Diving & snorkelling | 47 | 11.3% | 3 | 6.4% |
| Watersports & adrenaline | 17 | 4.1% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Attractions & sightseeing | 16 | 3.8% | 0 | 0.0% |
Systems
6 of 41 bookable operators run a dedicated booking platform; the rest use general cart or payment software.
| System | Operators |
|---|---|
| WooCommerce | 34 |
| Bokun | 4 |
| FareHarbor | 1 |
| Stripe | 1 |
| GetYourGuide | 1 |
Payment
2 of 41 bookable operators accept a local payment method (MoMo or VNPay). The rest are card-only.
Questions
9.8%: 41 of 417 classified Vietnamese tour and activity operators let customers book directly on their website. A further 274 have a website that cannot take a booking, 46 have only a social media profile, and 56 have no web presence at all.
WooCommerce on 34, Bokun on 4, FareHarbor on 1, Stripe on 1. Dedicated booking platforms reach 6 operators, 1.4% of the Vietnamese sample. Most bookable operators use general shopping-cart software rather than proper reservation software.
2 of 41 bookable Vietnamese operators accept a local payment method such as MoMo or VNPay. The remainder are card-only, which in practice means selling to international travellers rather than domestic ones.
56 of 417, or 13.4%. Online presence (a website or a social profile) reaches 86.6% of Vietnamese operators.
Mostly by message. Of Vietnamese operators with a working website but no online checkout, 45.1% list WhatsApp as their booking channel. Across the country 121 operators use WhatsApp as their only route to a booking.
Continue
Up to the full report: The State of Tour Operator Bookability in Southeast Asia · Next: Malaysia · Philippines
Percentages are of classified operators. 28 Vietnamese operators were excluded as unresolved (site blocked or misconfigured, not dead).
"Bookable" means a date-selection widget alongside a booking platform, payment gateway or cart on the operator's own site. It measures capability, not usage.
Data CC BY 4.0. Kong sells booking software to tour operators; see the hub for the full disclosure. · bookwithkong.com