Vietnam welcomes over 2.86 million foreigners in 2 months 2018

More than 2.86 million foreigners was estimated to visit Vietnam in January and February, up 29.7 percent from the same period in 2017.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Asian visitors made up the lion’s share of the number, at over 2.12 million people, increasing 35.8 percent year on year. The number of Chinese visitors, which accounted for 30 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Vietnam during the period, grew by 38.5 percent annually.

The numbers of tourist arrivals by air, road, and sea during the two-month period recorded respective annual increases of 26.3, 58.4, and 3.5 percent.

The number of international tourists to the capital city of Vietnam is estimated to rise by 30% to 125,000 people during the week-long Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, according to the Hanoi Department of Tourism.

Tourism in central and southern regions have reaped the benefits of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday (February 14 - 20), reporting an impressive surge in the number of visitors.

In the seven-day period, the Hue Complex of Monuments, a World Cultural Heritage site and famous tourist destination in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue, welcomed 117,000 visitors, including 47,000 foreigners. The total number of tourists to the site saw an increase of nearly 50 percent from the same period last year. The site offered free entrance to visitors on the first three days of the lunar year (February 16-18).

The Da Nang Tourism Department said the central coastal city served closed to 300,000 tourist arrivals during Tet, up 14 percent from 2017. The number of international visitors amounted to over 132,000, increasing 14 percent year-on-year, while the figures for domestic visitors were 164,893 and 5 percent, respectively.
The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, meanwhile, received 700,000 tourists, 10 percent higher than last year, according to its Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Within just five day of Tet (February 16-20), over 1 million people flocked to the southeast region (excluding the number of visitors to the local Vung Tau beach during the period). Binh Duong province announced that its popular Dai Nam tourism site attracted nearly 150,000 tourists during the period, a seven-fold increase compared to normal days. Dong Nai province highlighted the number of more than 100,000 arrivals per day recorded in the local Buu Long tourism site; the figure represented an annual growth of 30 percent. Tay Ninh province, home to the popular spiritual tourism destination of Ba Den, also posted a 5 percent increase in the number of visitors, at over 100,000 visitors per day.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said it aims to serve between 15 and 17 million foreigners and 78 million domestic travellers this year, with total revenue expected to hit 620 trillion VND (27.28 billion USD), up 21.35 percent on year.

Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said Northeast Asia, including China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, Taiwan (China), will continue to be the major sources of tourists to Vietnam. Last year, China and the RoK sent 4 and 2.4 million visitors to Vietnam.
With a growth of 30 percent in tourism in 2017, Vietnam for the first time came on the list of countries with fastest tourism growth speed in the world, ranking at the 6th place./.