Int’l arrivals likely to drop by 80 percent in 2020: administration

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam is forecast to witness a 80-percent drop in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country in 2020 if the COVID-19 pandemic is not controlled by the end of the year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

The administration said following a 33-percent growth in January, the number of foreign arrivals fell sharply by 22 percent in February and 68 percent in March.  

The number of international visitors from April to June is unlikely to improve, but it could pick up towards the end of the year, all be it with much lower figures than in 2019. 

According to Le Tuan Anh, director of VNAT’s tourism information centre, the Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) tourism is likely to recover first due to the urgent need for commercial transactions and business and production cooperation.

Vietnam is predicted to see an earlier recovery of arrivals from Asian markets rather than other continents, he said. 

If the pandemic is controlled in June, the number of international tourists to Vietnam in 2020 may decrease by nearly 70 percent compared to the previous year to only 5.5 million.

But if the pandemic lasts until the end of September or December, the number of foreign arrivals to the country may fall nearly 75 percent and 80 percent to about 4.6 and 3.7 million, respectively,  Anh noted. /.