Vietnam had welcomed nearly 1.89 million foreign tourist arrivals in the first six months of this year, down by 19.1 per cent on-year, the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) said on July 1.
During this time, visitors to Vietnam for entertainment purposes reached 1.14 million, down 22.1 per cent on-year, arrivals for business purposes were 280,700, up 1.7 per cent on-year with the rest of the arrivals coming to visit relatives.
Tourists coming to Vietnam by air, sea and road were all down against the same period in 2008 at 11.6 per cent, 58.5 per cent and 38.4 per cent, respectively.
Between January and June, the nation posted a sharp on-year drop in foreign tourist numbers from almost every country. It received 228,600 from China, 225,100 from the U.S., 203,700 from South Korea, 178,000 from Japan and 138,400 from Taiwan, down 39 per cent, 4.2 per cent, 19.9 per cent and 17.3 per cent respectively.
The situation is attributed to the global economic downturn and the ineffective cooperation among domestic tourism businesses to implement tourism stimulus packages, travel firms said.
International arrivals to Vietnam will grow steadily from now until 2012, said a report by the global market research firm RNCOS.
The report said that the country will serve around 4.3 million foreign visitors this year, 4.5 million next year, 4.8 million in 2011 and 5.2 million in 2012. (GSO June 30)
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