Foreign arrivals exceed yearly plan

The nine-month figure represents a 4.7-fold increase compared to the same period from last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

During the reviewed period, the number of international visitors to the nation reached 69% of pre-pandemic levels.

Of the total number of visitors, 7.8 million foreign arrivals, accounting for 87.5% of the overall figure, travelled by air, increasing by 4.7 times against the same period last year.

Over one million international tourists visited the country by road, making up 11.8% of the total and up 4.9-fold on-year. Around 64,000 visitors arrived in the country by sea, equivalent to 0.7% and rising by 129.6 times compared to the same period from 2022.

Asia remained as the country’s largest tourism market in the first nine months of this year with more than 6.8 million visitors, followed by foreign arrivals from Europe and America with one million and 682,000 arrivals, respectively. 

In September alone, the country received more than one million foreign travelers, down by 13.4% against August but up 2.4-fold on-year.

The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) has therefore proposed the prospect of raising the nation’s yearly set target of 10 million to 12 million foreign arrivals by the end of the year.