Foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam up 42.4 percent in November

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam welcomed over 15,000 foreign tourists in November, up 42.4 percent from the figure in October, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on November 29.

The rise is attributed to the Government’s decision to allow a pilot programme to welcome back international tourists who join package tours entering the country via either charter flights or international commercial flights to designated places and tourism facilities in Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, Da Nang and Quang Ninh.

In the first 11 months of this year, the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam was 140,100, down 96.3 percent year-on-year.

Of the total, the number of visitors arriving by air accounted for 68.9 percent, down 96.9 percent; by road accounted for 30.7 percent, down 92.9 percent, and by sea made up 0.4 percent, down 99.7 percent.

General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Trung Khanh affirmed that the event to welcome the first delegation of international holidaymakers back to Vietnam in this period was an important step to gradually revive the tourism sector towards the full reopening and economic development in the new context.

In order to enhance the effectiveness of the “Live fully in Vietnam” campaign, the VNAT is actively implementing activities to promote and stimulate tourism recovery, including popularising photos, video clips and articles on both domestic and international communications channels./.