Tourism revenue rises despite slow start
Tourism revenue rises despite slow start
Despite seeing slow growth over the first eight months of 2019, the tourism sector enjoyed a surge in the number of international travelers to Vietnam in the September-December period, alongside a strong rise in the number of domestic visitors, earning an estimated VND720 trillion in revenue this year, up 16% against last year.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, deputy general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, stated that Vietnam has welcomed 18 million international tourists to date. The record number has ranked Vietnam among countries with the fastest tourism growth in the world.
In the 2015-2019 period, international tourist arrivals in Vietnam edged up from 7.9 million to 18 million, an average increase of 22% per year.
“We had earlier been worried about the slow growth of the sector as the number of tourists from China, the country’s largest source market, fell 0.9% in the January-August period, piling pressure on the tourism sector,” she said.
However, since September, the country has seen the number of foreign visitors soar 30% year-on-year, helping the tourism sector fulfill its target for international tourist arrivals, she added.
As the majority of international holidaymakers to Vietnam were mainly from Asian countries, including China, South Korea and Japan, the administration intends to diversify its source markets next year, targeting major markets to further develop the tourism sector, the representative of the administration reported.
“We will launch a number of tourism promotion programs and activities to draw more tourists from India and the Middle East, which are considered potential source markets,” Huong stated, adding that Vietnam is expected to welcome 20.5 million international tourist arrivals in 2020.
As for domestic tourists, the number continued to rise this year. The country served up to 85 million local visitors, up 6% against last year.
