Hanoi (VNA) - Tourism activity nationwide continues to thrive, with sustained growth in domestic travel, significant increases in international arrivals, stable prices across accommodation and services, and with increased safety prevalent at tourist sites.
According to data released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Vietnam welcomed nearly 10.7 million international visitors in the first half of 2025, up 20.7% from the same period in 2024, achieving 48.6% of the full-year target of 22–23 million.
Domestic tourism reached 77.5 million arrivals (an 8.5% increase year-on-year), fulfilling 64.5% of the 2025 goal of 120–130 million.
Total tourism revenue is estimated at 518 trillion VND (nearly 19.8 million USD), meeting 52.8% of the annual target (980 trillion to 1.05 quadrillion VND).
Ho Chi Minh City led the nation with 22.19 million visitors, including approximately 3.85 million international arrivals, a 44% increase year-on-year, generating an estimated 117.94 trillion VND in revenue, up 27.3%. Other top-performing provinces included Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, and Kien Giang.
According to Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, the first half of the year saw major advances in tourism promotion, with innovative approaches leveraging digital technology with culture, art, and cinema.
Efforts focused on key strategic markets including China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US, Australia, Russia, and France, through a wide range of activities at cultural festivals, tourism events, and international travel fairs abroad.
The growing scale, frequency, and global reach of promotion campaigns demonstrate the sector’s proactive, creative spirit and commitment to innovation in both form and content, optimising public and private resources.
In parallel with on-the-ground campaigns, Vietnam ramped up digital marketing for premium tourism products such as golf, wellness tourism, and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions), achieving positive results.
With these encouraging mid-year results, Director General Khanh noted that to fuel a major leap forward, the tourism sector will focus on implementing a series of key tasks and solutions in the coming period.
These include advising on institutional reforms, developing breakthrough policies, and steering the sector toward deeper, higher-quality, professional, sustainable, and branded development.
Efforts will center on building world-class tourism products in luxury resort travel, wellness, agro-tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, medical tourism, and culinary tourism, leveraging Vietnam’s unique potential and national competitive advantages, while preserving heritage and cultural identity.
Particular emphasis will be placed on enhancing high-end service quality to offer unique, memorable experiences. The sector will also diversity and professionalize tourism enterprises to integrate into global supply chains, and strengthen cross-sector linkages to boost Vietnam’s tourism competitiveness within a green and sustainable framework.
The sector aims to restructure tourism markets to align with Vietnam’s strengths and global trends, while adapting to international shifts. It will also accelerate public-private cooperation and mobilise both domestic and foreign investment to improve infrastructure and reduce logistics costs.
To support these objectives, Vietnam is set to develop robust tourism databases and digital platforms that connect information systems for policy planning, state management, and service delivery, for businesses and tourists alike, ensuring deeper integration into the global tourism ecosystem./.
