Foreign visitors to Vietnam up 25.4%

Foreign visitors board a boat at a tourist spot in Hải Phòng City. Viet Nam News/Asia News Network

HANOI — Vietnam maintained growth in the number of foreign investors to the nation in the first seven months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office.

The number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first seven months of this year rose 25.4 percent year-on-year to 9 million.

Of this number, Vietnam received nearly 7 million visitors from Asia.

The GSO reported that in July, international visitors to Vietnam reached 1.19 million, up 0.5 percent from the previous month.

In the first seven months, arrivals by air reached 7.36 million visitors, increasing by 20.2 percent; and by land, 1.54 million visitors, up by 63.3 percent. Meanwhile, visitors by sea decreased slightly by 0.2 percent with 0.18 million visitors.

Regarding the market, visitors from Asia totalled 6.99 million people in the first seven months, accounting for 77 percent of the total number of tourists to the country, up 30.4 percent over the same period last year.

During this period, Vietnam hosted about 3 million visitors from mainland China, up 34.1 percent year-on-year; about 2 million visitors from South Korea, up 56.1 percent; and 464,000 visitors from Japan, up 6.2 percent. Following were tourists from Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Meanwhile, the number of visitors from Laos dropped by 8.4 percent to 76,000 compared with the same period last year.

European visitors to Vietnam rose 10.4 percent to 1.23 million over the same period last year, including 373,000 visitors from Russia.

Visitors from five Western European markets enjoy visa exemptions of up to 15 days, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Of which, visitors increased 7.9 per cent from the UK; 9.4 per cent from Germany; 12 per cent from France and 16.6 per cent from Italy.

Visitors from the Americas reached 570,000, up 13 percent over the same period last year, including 433,000 visitors from the US, up 15 percent.

General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan said by the end of the year, the tourism industry would focus on maintaining the growth of the number of tourists and total revenue from tourists.

Vietnam expects to receive a total of 16 million international visitors and 80 million domestic visitors this year.

In addition, the tourism sector would promote state management of the tourism industry, administrative reform and smart travel applications. It would also actively enhance promotion activities in foreign markets, attracting more visitors in key markets.