Int’l Tourist Arrivals to Vietnam Down 15 per cent in February

Vietnam, the sun warm Southeastern Asian nation, welcomed 320,000 international tourist arrivals in February of 2009, posting a decrease of 15 per cent on year and 10 per cent on month.  

 

The number raised the total number of foreign tourists to the country to 690,000 in the first two months of the year, it added.

 

In the first two months, visitors from Singapore increased 25 per cent and those from France and Malaysia up 40 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. However, visitors from South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Thailand and Japan dropped. South Korea registered the highest decrease with 30 per cent, followed by Australia (28 per cent) and Taiwan (20 per cent).

 

Vietnam welcomed around 4.7 million international tourist arrivals last year which failed to fulfill the set target of receiving 5 million foreign tourists and earning total revenues of VND56 trillion, or US$3.5 billion.

 

The country has set target of welcoming five million foreign and 21.5 million local tourists this year despite negative impacts of the global economic slowdown.

 

The tourism sector now contributes 8 per cent to Vietnam’s national GDP. (www.chinhphu.vn)