Tourist board to issue “black list”
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has decided to publish online a "black list" of dishonest tourism services and facilities that tend to rip off customers.
The list will soon be published on the organisation's two websites tourism.gov.vn and vietnamtourism.com in a move to improve the quality of tourism.
The decision comes as the number of tourists continues to grow rapidly.
So far, more than six million foreigners have visited Vietnam, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
However, the total overall growth has been 22.3% a year since 2009. The number of visitors was 3.747million, in 2009, 5 million in 2010, 6.25 million, in 2011, and 6.8 million, in 2012.
Tourists numbered more than 3.75 million, while another one million arrived on business, similar to the numbers arriving to see relatives.
Another 327,000 people arrived for other purposes.
Arrivals from Russia showed the sharpest growth rate, 66.1%, while those from China rose 36.2% and from Thailand, 21%.
In October alone, the country attracted nearly 628,659 visitors, a rise of 2.3% against September and 15.1% higher than the same period last year.
Vietnam is expected to welcome more than 7.4 million travellers by the end of this year. This would provide about US$7.9 billion in revenue, up 15.6% from 2012.
According to the GSO, the average spending for visitors is estimated at US$1,067 per head this year. If the country reaches its target of 7.4 million arrivals this year, spending will reach US$7.9 billion, a surge of 15.6% compared to US$6.83 billion in 2012.
From January to September, Vietnam's tourism sector pocketed about US$7.24 billion in revenue, a year-on-year increase of 23.5%.