Where Pickleball Meets Vietnam
Creating new opportunities for sports tourism
By Dan Beeman • August 26, 2026 • 7 min read
The Vietnam advantage
YOU CAN SEE part of Vietnam’s pickleball story in a single photograph: soaked in sweat, paddle still in hand, towel over my shoulders, sharing a grin on the number-one podium with a talented young local player.
It is a small moment, but after spending the past month traveling across Vietnam, it represents something much bigger.
I came here on a focused mission, conducting resort site inspections, presenting at travel conferences, evaluating existing court spaces and exploring the potential for pickleball within Vietnam’s hospitality industry. But some of the most revealing moments have happened after the meetings ended.
Nearly every evening, I found my way onto a local court.
What I encountered was a pickleball community filled with energy, enthusiasm and an eagerness to play. The sport is no longer simply arriving in Vietnam. It is becoming part of the recreational culture, and that creates an intriguing opportunity for a country already known around the world as a travel destination.
Now, as the World Cup comes to Da Nang, those two worlds are about to meet on an international stage.
More Than Courts
Pickleball’s growth is visible across Vietnam.
During my travels, I have seen facilities adapting existing spaces for pickleball and communities embracing the sport. Tennis courts, warehouses and multi-sport facilities are among the spaces being reconsidered as demand for places to play increases.
For someone who studies pickleball specifically through the lens of hospitality and resort tourism, what interests me most is not simply the number of courts being built. It is what happens around those courts.
For decades, resorts have built their recreational offerings around familiar amenities such as golf, spas, pools, tennis and organized sightseeing. Those remain important parts of the travel experience, but pickleball offers something different. It is inherently social.
A visitor does not have to remain separated from the community outside a resort. Give someone a paddle and a place to play, and suddenly a traveler can be sharing a court with local players. That creates a type of interaction traditional resort amenities do not always provide.
A traveler can spend the morning exploring Vietnam’s historic sites, experiencing its food and culture, and then step onto a pickleball court that evening and find a game with people who live there. The court becomes another way of experiencing the destination.
The Sports Traveler Is Changing
There is also a larger shift occurring within travel.
For many travelers, a vacation no longer means leaving an active lifestyle at home. People increasingly want opportunities to participate, whether that means cycling, hiking, running, golf, tennis, wellness activities or racquet sports.
Pickleball fits naturally into that environment because of its accessibility and social nature.
Players travel with their paddles. They search for courts before arriving at a destination. They look for resorts where they can play. Groups organize trips around the sport, and tournaments can turn a competition into a multi-day vacation.
That changes the equation for destinations such as Vietnam.
The country already has many of the elements international travelers seek: natural beauty, distinctive cuisine, cultural experiences, coastal destinations and an established hospitality industry.
Pickleball does not need to replace any of those things. It can connect them.
For hotels and resorts, courts can become more than another amenity listed on a website. With the right programming, they can create opportunities for social play, clinics, tournaments, group travel and interaction among guests.
The real opportunity is not simply putting lines on a court. It is creating an experience around the game.
“Pickleball creates an immediate, welcoming bridge between visitors and locals.” — Dan Beeman
Learning From the Local Courts
My time playing with local players has reinforced that point. You can learn a great deal about a pickleball market by looking at facilities and studying the business opportunity. You learn something different when you actually walk onto the court.
The enthusiasm I have encountered throughout Vietnam is difficult to miss. So are the quick reflexes, hand-eye coordination and competitive instincts of the players.
But what has stood out just as much is the welcome.
Pickleball has an unusual ability to remove barriers quickly. Players who may not share the same first language can understand one another once a game begins. There is a score, a paddle, a ball and a shared desire to compete. That social connection is one of pickleball’s greatest strengths as a tourism product.
Travel is ultimately about experiencing somewhere different. The best experiences often happen when visitors stop observing a destination from the outside and begin interacting with the people who live there.
Pickleball can create that opportunity almost instantly.
Then Comes the World
After a month traveling through Vietnam and seeing that growth firsthand, ending the journey at the Pickleball World Cup in Da Nang feels fitting.
From August 30 through September 6, the city is expected to welcome more than 4,000 athletes representing more than 80 national delegations. Players, coaches, families and supporters will arrive from around the world for a week centered on competition but extending well beyond the courts.
For Vietnam, that presents an opportunity that goes beyond hosting a major sporting event.
Thousands of international visitors connected by one sport will experience the country at the same time. They will stay in its hotels, eat in its restaurants, visit its attractions and, perhaps most importantly, interact with a local pickleball community that is developing alongside the international game.
Some will arrive primarily because of pickleball. That is sports tourism in its most tangible form.
And unlike an event that arrives in a city and disappears when the final medal is awarded, the World Cup is coming to a destination where people are already playing. That distinction matters.
The international tournament can showcase what is happening locally, while the local enthusiasm gives the tournament an identity tied to its host country.
“Vietnam is no longer simply adopting the global game. It is positioning itself to help shape the next era of international pickleball and sports tourism.” — Dan Beeman
After the World Cup
The more interesting question may be what happens after everyone goes home.
A successful sports destination is not built around one week on the calendar. It develops when visitors have reasons to return and when the infrastructure created around an event continues serving the local community. That is where I believe Vietnam has an opportunity.
Pickleball can become part of a broader travel experience rather than the entire reason for it. Resorts can incorporate courts and programming into existing wellness and recreation offerings. Clubs can welcome visiting players. Tour operators can combine court time with food, culture and sightseeing. Groups can build vacations around tournaments, clinics or simply the chance to play somewhere new.
And local players remain at the center of it.
The strongest impression from my month in Vietnam has not come from a spreadsheet, resort inspection or conference presentation. It has come from stepping onto courts night after night and seeing how quickly people have embraced the game. That is why the photograph from the number-one podium means something to me.
Yes, there was competition. Yes, someone won.
But what I remember is standing beside another player, from another culture and another generation, smiling after a match because we had just shared something neither of us needed translated.
Now thousands of players from around the world are coming to Da Nang to do the same thing.
The Pickleball World Cup will eventually end. The courts will still be here.
And so will the opportunity for Vietnam to turn its growing passion for pickleball into something travelers can experience long after the world champions have gone home.
About Dan Beeman
Dan Beeman is CEO of Superlative Pickleball Travel and Resort Services and holds a Master of Hospitality degree from UNLV, where his research focused on the economic implications of pickleball for resorts. His work focuses on pickleball travel, resort development, site evaluation and hospitality programming.
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