One evening in Saigon, after a lovely dinner at a rooftop garden, we stopped on a sidewalk to have a brief chat about where to go next; 

Ice cream? Beer? Wine? The choices are endless. Suddenly, a bunch of taxis just stopped by us, the drivers looking at us in anticipation for a ride.

Simon Christy, founder and CEO of Alehap.vn, our local host for the evening, laughed. “Guys, we are confusing them. No one stops at sidewalks here. Here, you just cross the road, you don’t pause. We’ve just done a cultural no-no.”

Anyone who’ve been to Saigon knows the rule of crossing the road. You don’t look. You just step out in front of hundreds of cars, motorcycles and bicycles and hope for the best. Drivers are trained to swerve and avoid us and the worst kind of pedestrians are those who hesitate.

I reckon the same rules apply if you wish to enter Vietnam and take part in its burgeoning travel market �" know the market, understand its differences and don’t hesitate.

Here’s what we learnt at our WIT Saigon Evening held last Wednesday at Le Meridien, the fourth Starwood property in the country, and first Le Meridien in Saigon. (Starwood is aiming for 20 hotels in the country by 2020.)

It is a huge market �" 93 million people. The second biggest market in ASEAN, after Indonesia. It is a very young market �" 50% under 30 �" and thus highly social. Facebook has 90% penetration here.

Christy’s site, Alehap.vn, built up from social �" and is a model unique to Vietnam. With its 440,000 fans, it’s built an OTA offering and pushes out deals but Christy is very careful about the balance between community and commerce.

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