For Travel AgentsYour client has already decided, and the decision is Thailand. You are the one who has to say the word “Vietnam” out loud in a meeting, with a family or a board looking back at you. This is the argument we would hand you if you rang us — Xtravel, the India desk of a Vietnamese operator — with the parts where Thailand is still the better answer left in.
The short version, before the detail
If your client’s brief is a large, complex wedding on an inflexible date in peak season, with a family that will not tolerate a single unfamiliar variable, recommend Thailand. The vendor bench is deeper, the visa question does not exist, and more people there have already solved exactly that problem.
If the brief is photographs the guests have not seen before, a full-property buyout that is actually achievable, pressure on ground cost, and a client who can absorb one visa step — Vietnam is worth putting on the table.
Everything below is the evidence for that split.
Who is telling you this
Xtravel has run three Indian MICE and wedding groups in Vietnam, in Da Nang, Phu Quoc and Sapa. Several Indian agencies send us business. We are a new desk inside an operator that has been running since 2011, so we will describe our process in detail, because process is what we can speak to honestly. An Indian has always held the director’s chair at Xtravel. That is policy, not staffing.
Why the objection is reasonable
Concede the ground that is genuinely theirs. Thailand has been selling to India for far longer than Vietnam has, the airlift is denser, the wedding vendor bench is deeper, and Indian passport holders enter visa-free for 60 days.
Vietnam did not do that. An Indian passport holder needs an e-visa: 25 USD single entry, 50 USD multiple entry, valid 90 days, processed in three to five working days through evisa.gov.vn, passport valid six months with two blank pages. For a group of, say, forty that is a spreadsheet, a chase list and someone’s evening. For a corporate incentive of three hundred it is a dedicated coordinator.
Do not argue this away. Vietnam loses this one. Price it instead: 25 USD and one form per head, set against whatever the ground quotes actually say when you put them side by side.
What moved in the last twenty-four months
The conversation is happening now because Indian travellers already answered it. Vietnam received roughly 750,000 Indian arrivals in 2025, up around 50 per cent. The first quarter of 2026 alone brought more than 242,000, up 169 per cent.
That is not backpacker growth. Da Nang handled 101 MICE groups and 28,428 delegates in the first five months of 2026, and hosted more than 50 destination weddings across 2025. Quang Ninh recorded six ultra-high-net-worth Indian weddings in the first four months of 2026. In Phu Quoc, one Indian family took over an entire resort for seven days for more than 1,000 guests.
For the corporate side of your desk, the pool behind that is large: the Indian MICE market is valued at 37.75 billion USD in 2025 and projected at 74.12 billion USD by 2031, with incentive travel growing around 12.85 per cent a year.
Your client is not being asked to pioneer. The numbers show the movement is already under way.
Where Vietnam competes
Ground cost is the number to test — and we will not fake it. We do not have a sourced rate comparison to give you, and we are not going to invent one. What we will do is quote your dates and let you set our figure beside a Thai quote for the same star category and month. Be suspicious of anyone who gives you a per-head number before seeing dates.
A buyout is easier to secure. One family did take a full resort for 1,000 guests over seven days in Phu Quoc. That tells you the stock exists at that scale. It does not tell you it will be free on your dates, and we will check rather than assume. Our reading, from sourcing properties rather than from a market study, is that Vietnam’s coastal resort stock is large relative to current Indian group demand — treat that as an observation, not data.
The terrain photographs differently. Northern Vietnam gives limestone karsts and terraced highland; the centre gives a long beach coast; the south gives island resorts. The practical point for you is not the scenery but the logistics: a highland or bay venue does not sit beside an international airport the way a beach resort does, so transfer times and supply runs change. Ask us for those numbers before anyone falls in love with a photograph.
The comparison, plainly
The Thailand column is market observation, not sourced data.
| Factor | Vietnam | Thailand |
|---|---|---|
| Visa for Indian passport | E-visa, 25 USD single / 50 USD multiple, 90 days, 3–5 working days | Visa-free, 60 days |
| Flight time from India | 4–5 hours direct | Comparable |
| Direct carriers | Air India, Vietnam Airlines, VietJet, IndiGo | Denser network, more daily frequencies |
| Departure cities | Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad | More, with higher frequency |
| One-way fare guide | ~INR 12,000–14,500 | Not compared here |
| Indian-wedding vendor depth | Growing, concentrated in a few cities | Deeper, longer established |
| Full-property buyout | Easier in current demand conditions | Tighter in peak season |
| Jain catering | Partner kitchens in Hanoi, Da Nang, Phu Quoc; no partner kitchen in Ho Chi Minh City; Sapa has no Jain kitchen on site | Long-established supply |
Where Vietnam is still behind, and you should say so
Other Indian-wedding markets have been running these events longer than Vietnam has been receiving Indian tourists at scale. They have a vendor ecosystem Vietnam has not had time to build. That is a fact about years in market, and enthusiasm does not shorten it.
Thailand’s advantage is the same thing in different clothing: not the beaches, but the number of people there who have already done your client’s job.
There is geography inside Vietnam too. We have no partner kitchen in Ho Chi Minh City. Sapa has no Jain kitchen on site. If your programme requires Ho Chi Minh City with strict Jain catering, you will hear that from us at enquiry stage, not after you have quoted it.
Jain catering, end to end
Vague reassurance is where trust breaks, so here is the whole process in one place. Our partner kitchens cook strictly Jain in Hanoi, Da Nang and Phu Quoc, both North and South Indian. Where there is no kitchen, we say so rather than improvising a promise.
| Stage | Timing | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Requirement form | 14 days before | Dietary form issued to the partner kitchen |
| Ingredient list returned | After the form | Kitchen returns a per-meal ingredient list, signed by the cook |
| Confirmation pack | 7 days before | Written confirmation pack issued to the client |
| Final Jain check | 24 hours before | Jain meals re-confirmed |
| Service | On the day | Our coordinator present at service time |
One scheduling point worth flagging early: many Jain guests do not eat after sunset (ratri bhojan tyag), and Vietnamese winter sunsets are early, so the evening banquet has to move forward. That is a running-order decision, not a catering one, and it is easier to make on the planning call than on the day. We do not promise a kitchen we have not confirmed in writing.
What the calendar does to this decision
Indian corporate MICE budgets are typically signed off between January and March for a financial year starting 1 April. If your client is a company and it is already May, you are usually selling for the next cycle unless the budget is already sitting there.
The second date is weather. Central Vietnam has a storm season running roughly September to November. If your client wants Da Nang and names October, raise it at enquiry stage. Northern and southern Vietnam sit on different patterns, so a date that fails for the centre may work elsewhere.
The questions your client will ask you privately
Give straight answers.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Tap water? | No. Do not drink it. Bottled water is everywhere and cheap; we put it on the coach and in rooms. |
| Health spray in the bathroom? | Common in Vietnam, including hotels, but not universal. Our site-inspection checklist includes it, property by property. |
| Where do we pray? | Vietnam has Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Catholic communities with active places of worship; major cities have Hindu temples and mosques. In Vietnamese pagodas, shoulders and knees must be covered — tell the group before arrival. |
| Medical cover? | International-standard hospitals operate in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. Pharmacies are widespread. |
| Phones and payment? | SIM and internet are cheap with good coverage, including rural areas. Cards work at larger hotels and restaurants; markets and small stalls need cash; ATMs are widely available. |
What we need in order to quote you
Send these and we can work: travel dates and flexibility around them; headcount and rough split of adults, children and VIPs; cities or regions wanted; dietary breakdown, with the Jain count stated separately; ceremony or session running order if one exists; ground budget band; and whether you are an agency or the end client.
On visas, we will not claim here that we file e-visas on your behalf. Ask us on the enquiry call with your group size and you will get a yes or a no in writing.
What we do not do
We do not sell India–Vietnam air tickets. We do not design event concepts or décor. We do not publish photographs of clients’ events, so there is no gallery to show you — some planners will find that disqualifying, and it is a fair trade. And if you are an agency, we do not sell direct to your clients; if one of your guests contacts us, we refer them back to you.
Recommend Vietnam against the brief it fits and you keep the relationship. Recommend it against the brief that was really Thailand’s, and you own the outcome. Send us the brief and we will tell you which of the two you are holding.
All third-party figures read 24 August 2026.
About Xtravel
Xtravel is the India desk of VINATAT Group, a Vietnamese travel company operating since 2011, holding an international tour operator licence, with offices in northern, central and southern Vietnam. Xtravel is headed by Sreehari Sajeev – “Harry” – our Director, an Indian who lives and works in Hanoi. When you call us, you speak to him, not to a translator. We plan and run programmes on the ground here. We are not a reseller.
Travel like a local.
Talk to the person who will actually be there.
Sreehari Sajeev (Harry) – Director, Xtravel
+84 92 4567 333 · Hoang@vinatat.vn
Xtravel – VINATAT Group · 212 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi
International tour operator licence 01-1082/2018/TCDL-GP LHQTWe don’t publish our clients’ events. Yours won’t be either.
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