Hanoi (VNA) – November saw a new record in foreignarrivals at 1.8 million, according to General Statistics Office (GSO).
The office reported that in the first 11 months of thisyear, Vietnam received nearly 16.3 million foreign visitors, a rise of 15.4percent over the same period last year.
Of the total, 79.8 percent flew to Vietnam, up 14.1 percentyear on year. Meanwhile, the number of foreigners reaching the country throughroads rose 21.4 percent and via the sea increased 13.7 percent year on year.
Asian visitors accounted for 79.6 percent of the totalforeign arrivals in Vietnam in 11 months, an increase of 18.2 percent year onyear. Upturn was seen in the majority of tourism markets, including China (15.1percent), the Republic of Korea (22.3 percent), Japan (15.4 percent), Taiwan(30.2 percent), Malaysia (12.9 percent), and Thailand (47.1 percent).
At the same time, a drop of 18.3 percent was recorded forvisitors from Laos and 37.5 percent for Hong Kong.
The number of European visitors rose 6.3 percent, whilethose from America were up 7.4 percent.
According to the GSO, revenue from tourism activities in thefirst 11 months was estimated to reach 41.7 trillion VND (1.8 billion USD), up12.2 percent over the same time in 2018.
The 11-month results made the tourism sector confident ofreaching the yearly goal of welcoming 18 million foreign visitors and earningsof 700 trillion VND, as December is the peak season for travelling.
In early December, Hanoi will host the second Vietnamhigh-level tourism conference, providing a chance for national andregional-level public-private dialogue, and aiming to seek measures andnecessary actions to make a sustainable breakthrough for Vietnamese tourism.
A plan of actions to raise the competitiveness of Vietnamesetourism will also be discussed at the event, along with measures to raise thesector’s contribution to GDP to 10 percent in 2021, and ways to realize theinitiative of building a common ASEAN aviation market in 2020./.
VNA