Vietnam welcomes 4.6 million foreign tourists over five-month period
VOV.VN - The country welcomed a total of 4.6 million foreign visitors during the initial five months of the year, a figure 12.6 times higher than that of the same period from last year, or around 63% of pre-pandemic levels recorded back in 2019.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), May alone witnessed the country welcome 916,300 foreign visitors, marking a decline of 6.9% over the previous month, but up 5.3 times on-year.
During the January to May period, in terms of international arrivals, the number of air passengers topped four million, accounting for 88%.
Elsewhere, 503,200 international arrivals entered the country by road and 50,900 foreigners came via sea, making up 10.9% and 1.1% of total arrivals, respectively.
Throughout the reviewed period, Asia represented the nation’s largest tourist source market with total 3.4 million arrivals. The Republic of Korea (RoK) topped the list with more than 1.31 million arrivals.
The RoK was followed by China with 398,900 arrivals. Five Asian countries, including Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Singapore, sent a total of 922,000 visitors to the country.
Moreover, the nation attracted 621,100 European visitors during the reviewed period, with 113,800 visitors coming from the UK alone.
Five-month revenue from accommodation and catering services also hit VND268.3 trillion, marking an annual rise of 22.1%. Meanwhile, travel businesses earned about VND11.6 trillion, up 89.4% compared to the same period from last year, thanks to an array of exciting cultural and tourism activities held nationwide.
Moving forward, the country’s tourism sector is anticipated to fully recover to the pre-pandemic period during the remaining months of the year.
Vietnamese tourism may attract 10 million foreign tourist arrivals this year, surpassing the target of eight million previously set by the sector, according to Ha Van Sieu, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
