Vietnam seeks to attract more Chinese visitors

Data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism shows that the administration and many travel firms between October 22 and 27 held two tourism marketing programs in Nanning City and Shenzhen City in China and met with hundreds of China-based tour operators. The programs were aimed at increasing the number of Chinese tourists to Vietnam by road.

The next trip to China for marketing programs, slated from November 4 to 11, will be taken by the administration, travel firms and four- and five-star hotel operators to introduce Vietnamese tourism in three Chinese cities, including Chongqing and Harbin.

Over the January-October period of 2018, the number of Chinese tourist arrivals in Vietnam amounted to an estimated 4.18 million, up 28.8% year-on-year, exceeding the figure for all of last year.

Given the tourism sector’s significant performance over the past few months, Vietnam expects to welcome some five million Chinese visitors for the whole year, rising by more than one million against 2017.

A source from the Ministry of Transport noted that China’s airlines---China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Sichuan Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines---are operating 20 air routes from Beijing, Guangzhou, Sanya, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai, Dalian, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Hangzhou to Vietnam’s six tourism destinations of Hanoi, HCMC, Danang, Nha Trang, Haiphong and Phu Quoc Island, with a total capacity of over 100 weekly flights per route.

Besides this, Vietnam’s three airlines will exploit 28 air links between five tourism attractions in Vietnam---Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc Island---and 17 Chinese localities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Sanya, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai, Dalian, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, with a combined capacity of 140 flights per week.