Khanh Hoa welcomes over 5.6 million visitors in nine months

The occupancy rate of hotels in September averaged 54 per cent, of which the occupancy rate of three to five star hotels and one to two star hotels was projected at over 65 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

According to the Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism, Chinese tourists visiting Khanh Hoa have taken the top spot in numbers of foreign arrivals since the start of the year, reaching nearly 1.8 million, a sharp rise of 142 per cent.

The number of Russian visitors to the province also enjoyed a surge of nearly 104 per cent to more than 300,000, trailed by visitors from Republic of Korea (over 148,000), Malaysia ( more than 34,000), and Thailand (14,000).

These figures indicate that international visitors to Khanh Hoa in recent years have mostly been made up of Asian tourists with a total of more than 2 million. This represents a strong increase of 143 per cent in comparison to the same period from last year.

Despite the growing number of Russian visitors, the influx of tourists from Europe remained stable while the number of tourists from the UK, France, and Germany fell by between 13- 30 per cent.

With increased visitor numbers, the local tourism sector continues to step up its promotion activities in a bid to attract visitors from newly emerging destinations from across Asia such as the Republic of Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia.

This comes following the opening of direct air routes that connects Cam Ranh International Airport to these markets.

Although the overall number of tourists visiting Khanh Hoa has skyrocketed, the increasing number of visitors has caused the transport infrastructure of Nha Trang city to be overload. This can be attributed to 50-seat passenger buses being allowed to travel to the city’s centre, causing severe traffic congestion as a result.