'I probably won't come back': Hoi An has lost its charm to commercialization

VnExpress readers are divided over Hoi An's growing commercialization, with some lamenting the loss of local culture and rising costs while others see the changes as an inevitable part of economic development and modern tourism.

"Last year, I visited Hoi An for the second time and told myself I probably won't come back. Hoi An has become so chaotic and shabby. It's an ancient town, and yet the restaurants and shops are full of Western-language signs, cafés have live performances of foreign music, and the clothes and merchandise on sale look just like what you'd find at student markets in Hanoi.

I would think that foreigners, mainly Western tourists, and visitors from other parts of Vietnam come here to experience the local culture and meet local people, not to hear and see things they're already familiar with. Why don't we preserve our cultural traditions for visitors to enjoy? Where have the royal court music and folk songs from Vietnam's three regions gone?"

That was the view shared by reader Chu Viet Phuong, who expressed concern that Hoi An's ancient town is losing its identity.

According to statistics from 2023, just over 3,000 residents remained in the ancient town. Around 30% of property owners in the historic core were from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while 40% of the original homeowners had moved away. By 2024, only about 20-30% of heritage buildings were still occupied as homes. Many families originally from Hoi An were struggling to live in deteriorating old houses that had yet to receive much-needed restoration.

From the perspective of preserving the local community, traditional houses once served three purposes: providing a home, a place for ancestral worship, and space for small businesses catering to local residents. Today, most of these buildings serve just one purpose: commerce.

On major streets such as Bach Dang and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, monthly rents range from VND60 million to VND120 million (US$2,300-4,600) per property, equivalent to VND800,000–1 million ($31-39) per square meter. Upfront payments running into tens of thousands of dollars put enormous pressure on business owners to recover their investment. With such heavy financial obligations, they have little choice but to find every possible way to turn a profit.

Sharing a similar sense of regret over Hoi An's fading character, reader Kienpts commented:

"I'm from northern Vietnam, and I moved here in 2014. When I first arrived, I would cycle around Hoi An every day, and I absolutely loved it. Back then, breakfast cost just a few dozen cents, and a cup of coffee was 58 cents. Compared with major cities at the time, those prices were astonishingly low. The locals were also gentle, honest and down-to-earth.

These days, it's hard to find that same feeling in Hoi An. Everything has become just as expensive as in the central districts of big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City."

Reader Lao ngoan dong, however, took a more positive view of Hoi An's transformation:

"That's just the natural course of development, and we have to accept it. If someone asked you to give up your mobile phone and go back to using a landline, could you do it? Economic growth is what improves people's living standards. In the past, hardly anyone had air conditioning. Now even households in rural areas have it. We can't say that means they've lost their cultural identity.

If you expect local people to maintain the same peaceful way of life they had decades ago just to keep tourists interested, have you considered whether they themselves would find that life boring? Wanting to stop outsiders from coming in and doing business is no different from closing off the country and refusing foreign investment."

Reader Nguyen Tuan added:

"Most of the changes have taken place within the ancient town itself. From what I've seen, the surrounding areas of Hoi An are still largely populated by locals.

Things evolve according to supply and demand and changing social attitudes. Nowadays, people prefer the kind of tourism where they take pictures and check in at famous spots. That's why places like Hoi An are losing their local character. As long as tourists have a pretty backdrop for a few photos and can try a couple of local specialties, they're happy to head home."