Foreign visitors at Hoi An ancient city (Photo: dulichvietnam.com.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – The number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in August isestimated to rise over 14 percent month-on-month to 1.51 million, according tothe General Statistics Office (GSO).
Around 11.3 million foreigners spend their holidays in Vietnam duringJanuary-August, with visitors from Asian markets accounting for the lion’sshare of 78.1 percent.
The figure for those from Asia witnessed a 9.9 percentclimb year on year. Arrivals from China fell 0.9 percent while those from theThailand, China’s Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Singaporeinched up 46.3 percent, 27.1 percent, 22.5 percent, 14.6 percent, 13.7 percent,and 5.4 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the number of tourists from Europe is estimated to grow 5.3 percentfrom the same time last year, with arrivals from Europe-America increasing 6.2percent, Russia 5.7 percent and Germany 5.6 percent.
The US has been seen as a major tourism market of Vietnam. As the world’ssecond outbound market, some 93 million US travellers spent 245 billion USD ontheir foreign tours in 2018. Among nearly 9.3 million visitors to the Asia,687,000 chose Vietnam for their holidays, increasing 12 percent compared to2017.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the countryholds huge potential to tap into the US tourism market, especially after VNATGeneral Director Nguyen Trung Khanh led a delegation to promote tourism at theAmerican Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) Global Convention 2019 in the USfrom August 23-27.
Besides, Vietnam has been officially granted Category 1 rating certification(CAT1) by the US Federal Aviation Administration, allowing Vietnamese carriersto fly direct to the US. Therefore, several Vietnamese airlines are planning toopen non-stop routes to the American nation in the next one or two years,helping the tourism sector diversify its markets.
The GSO said revenue from catering and accommodation services in the past eightmonths totals nearly 386 trillion VND (16.6 billion USD), soaring 9.8 percentfrom the same period last year. Meanwhile, local tours earn an estimated 30trillion VND, surging 12.1 percent year on year.
This year, the industry targets to serve 17.5-18 million foreign arrivals and85 million domestic ones. Total revenue from tourism is expected at 700trillion VND.-VNA
VNA
