Vietnam is likely to become one of the top-ten tourist destinations in the world by 2016, a report by US industry research firm, RNCOS, said, building on the country’s annual tourism growth at 14 per cent for the next five years.
“Vietnam is one of the best performing economies in the Asian region. It [Vietnam] welcomed around 3.6 million international tourists in 2006, representing a 2.1 million arrival increase from 2000,” it says.
Notably, the country’s tourism revenue in 2006 reached almost $2.4 billion, up $1.2 billion from 2000 and accounting for 3.9 per cent of the gross domestic products, it added.
In addition, Vietnam is home to many natural and cultural world heritage sites recognized by UNESCO, in addition to beautiful landscapes and resorts.
Aviation, transportation, hospitality, and other industries closely associated with the tourism industry will benefit from this surge in tourism, RNCOS noted, explaining that tourism is among the most rapidly growing industrial sectors in most countries.
Vietnam is also amongst Asian destinations enjoying high growth rate in tourist arrivals.
Vietnam has, in recent years, welcomed long-haul visitors from countries like the US, China, Australia, and France, regional travelers from neighboring countries, and high-spending visitors from Northeast Asia.
The Vietnamese government has recently given permission to the national tourism agency, VNAT, to air $400,000-worth advertisements on US television channel CNN. This showed its effort and determination in tourism promotion abroad, hoping to fulfill the target of welcoming 3.6-4.4 million foreign visitors in 2007.
In the first six months of this year, Vietnam greeted more than 2.1 million international arrivals, up 14.7 per cent on-year. (Pioneer, GSO Edition June)
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