Vietnam, the sun warm Southeastern Asian nation, received more than 2.8 million international visitor arrivals in the first eight months of 2007, up 17 per cent from 2006, General Statistics Office (GSO) reported without mentioning to the total revenue of the hospitality sector available during the period.
Visitors from Northeast Asia made up 33 per cent of the foreign arrivals while those from Europe accounted for 16 per cent, and North America, 13 per cent.
Particularly, arrivals coming to the country by air posted highest rate with 78 per cent.
China remained its position as largest tourism market of Vietnam during the eight month time with more than 373,870 despite the on-year decrease of 1.7 per cent. The runners-up were South Korea with 335,400, up 22.3 per cent, the US with 290,860, up 8.4 per cent and Japan with 269,790, up 14.8 per cent.
The drop from China market was mainly attributed to Chinese government restrictions to limit the number of its citizens crossing the border to patronize casinos, the GSO said, hoping for higher number of tourists from the market thanks to the two countries’ efforts to speed up bilateral tourism ties in recent times.
Top visitor markets of Vietnam with the strongest year-on-year growth are Malaysia (61.2 per cent), Russia (60 per cent) and Italy (46.2 per cent).
Once again, Vietnam saw on-year falls in four markets in the first eight months of the year namely China, Cambodia, Laos, and Norway. Among the four, Norway dropped most with an on-year decrease of 16.1 per cent, followed by Laos, 15.7 per cent and Cambodia, 12.9 per cent.
Vietnam also witnessed growth in three groups of international arrivals, including those flocking to the nation for doing businesses, visiting relatives, and for holidays during the reviewed time.
Specifically, visitors coming to the communist country for holiday registered the highest rate, at 27.6 per cent. The followings were those arriving to the country for business, at 16 per cent and for visiting relatives, 0.5 per cent
The number of vacationers to the country for other purposes still fell, posting an on-year down of 11.5 per cent.
In August, Vietnam welcomed 356,000 foreign tourists. China, South Korea, the US and Japan were also the biggest markets of the country in the month.
Tourism experts said Russian tourists spent more money on luxury services in Vietnam than other foreign visitors. Their spending money is about 40 per cent higher than the overall average of US$800 per person during their stay in the country.
Last year, Vietnam welcomed 3.58 million foreign visitors and earned a total of US$3 billion in revenues, of which US$50 million came from some 30,000 Russian visitors.
Vietnam is looking to 4-4.4 million foreign visitors and 19-20 million domestic tourists with total revenue of VND56 trillion, or US$3.5 billion this year. (GSO Edition August)
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