Russian tourists to Vietnam surge in October

Moscow (VNA) - The number of Russian holiday makers visiting Vietnam continued to rise in October while the figures for other major destinations dropped further, according to Russia’s RBK news website.

The site quoted statistics of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) that showed nearly 24,000 Russian tourists arrived in Vietnam in October, posting a year-on-year surge of 60 percent.

General Director of Russian tour operator PAKS Vitaliy V.Chizhikov attributed the outcome to the launch of flights from Moscow to Vietnam in October.

Additionally, from late August to October, Russia’s Aeroflot Airline applied a promotional campaign for flights between Moscow and Ho Chi Minh City.

Accordingly, a round-trip ticket on the route cost only 30,000 RUB (over 452 USD) compared to 45,000 RUB on the Moscow-Bangkok route.

Russia is targeted as one of the key markets of Vietnam under the country’s tourism development strategy through 2020 with a vision towards 2030.

In 2014, Vietnam greeted 364,873 Russian visitors, a yearly rise of 22.4 percent. The central Khanh Hoa province led all localities with nearly 270,000 Russian tourists.

Between 2009 and 2013, the number of Russian vacationers to Vietnam increased 6.8 times from over 29,000 in 2009 to more than 298,000 in 2013, recording an annual average growth of 58.53 percent.

Vietnam ranked fourth in the top 10 most favourite destinations of Russia, after Egypt, Thailand, and Turkey.-VNA