They want the authorities to hike fines manifold and deploy technology-based monitoring systems to prevent the insidious practice.
Chi Mai, 35, a Hanoi-based tour guide whose family has lived in the capital for three generations, says incidents of overcharging have become so common that they no longer surprise locals.
“Even residents buying 200 grams of pickled fruit in the Old Quarter without first checking the price can be charged double. It’s not surprising that foreign tourists are asked to pay four or five times.”
The repeated reports of such instances leave her disheartened, she says.
“If authorities fail to tackle this issue in a decisive manner, Vietnam’s international tourism promotion efforts will prove ineffective.”
On Feb. 24 an American tourist was charged VND1 million (US$38) for a seven-kilometer trip, 14 times the usual fare, by a motorbike-taxi driver in Hanoi.
The driver admitted to the violation, apologized to the tourist and promised not to repeat the act.
Earlier cases also drew attention.
In January Hanoi authorities fined a street vendor for charging two foreign tourists nearly four times the normal price of a conical hat.
In July 2025 a group of Filipino tourists were charged VND1.4 million ($53) for a taxi ride of less than 1 km, 50 times the normal fare.
Two months later an Australian family reportedly paid VND1.2 million for a cyclo trip, three times the regulated rate.
Overcharging and aggressive solicitation are not confined to Hanoi and have been reported across other tourist hubs such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
Nguyen Tien Dat, CEO of Hanoi-based tour operator AZA Travel, says overcharging tends to occur more frequently in destinations with large numbers of international visitors.
He recounts a personal experience in Da Nang where a taxi driver took a longer route from the airport while Dat was on a phone call. Only after he protested strongly did the driver adjust the fare.
“Even veteran tourism professionals such as tour guides and travel agency executives can fall victim to such practices, and international visitors are even more exposed,” Mai says, adding she has frequently intervened to help tourists resolve pricing disputes.
Tran Trung Hieu, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism, acknowledges that gouging remains an issue, particularly in areas such as the Old Quarter and during major festivals.
Failure to publicly display prices and forcing customers to make purchases are fraudulent practices, he says.
The department has established a tourist hotline and increased security presence on pedestrian streets during weekends, he says.
“Price gouging, at worst, discourages visitors from returning.”
In Da Nang, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has formed a rapid response team to address complaints and conducts regular inspections of tourism service providers.
There are task forces to monitor commercial fraud, counterfeit goods and non-compliance with pricing regulations.
Authorities on Phu Quoc Island recently established a tourism rapid response team to protect visitors and address service-related concerns amid a tourism boom.
Heavier fines needed
Pham Hai Quynh, director of the Asian Tourism Development Institute, describes persistent overcharging and aggressive solicitation as “a scar on the face of Vietnamese tourism.”
In several key tourist and coastal destinations in the central region, aggressive solicitation has become less visible, but has largely been replaced by more discreet practices.
In some cases language differences are leveraged to make pricing unclear, impacting not only international visitors but even domestic travelers.
Quynh blames this on the mindset of some vendors, who do not view tourism as a sustainable economic activity and cannot look beyond an immediate income.
“With fines lower than the likely profits, violations become a rational choice.”
But he admits there are the practical limits to enforcement since authorities cannot deploy police officers at every streetcorner.
Dat echoes that sentiment, attributing the persistence of the problem to vendors frequently changing locations and being difficult to track down.
As Vietnam seeks to strengthen its standing as a competitive regional destination, industry observers say ensuring price transparency and addressing enforcement gaps will be critical to restoring visitors’ confidence and protecting the country’s tourism brand.
Vietnam should deploy tourism applications integrated with digital mapping platforms, enabling visitors to check reference prices for goods and services and provide immediate ratings for vendors, he adds.
Quynh calls for heavy financial penalties, even permanent business bans in tourist areas, for repeat offenders.
If the fines are dozens of times the amount they overcharge visitors, violators will be deterred, and so the current few hundred thousand dong penalties should be increased to VND5 million or VND10 million, insiders say.
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