Vietnam, home to five World Heritage sites, welcomed 1.1 million foreign visitors in the first three months this year, a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent, according to the General Statistic Office (GSO).
The GSO has, however, not revealed total revenue of the hospitality sector during the period.
Among the 31 listed markets, South Korea left China behind to become the largest market of Vietnam in the quarter, with more than 142,530 tourists, up 17 per cent on-year. The runners-up were China with 135,360, down 11.3 per cent and the US with 123,220, up 12 per cent, against the same period last year.
Unofficial sources attributed consecutive drops in Chinese tourists in recent months to China’s policies limiting cross-border travel to curb the number of Chinese people gambling in Vietnam, and a regulation to stop granting entry-exit visas for 14 countries sharing the borders with China.
Spain holds the highest on-year growth rate in the number of tourists visiting Vietnam in the three months, at 95.8 per cent. Following it were Malaysia, 76.2 per cent and Thailand, 64.9 per cent.
In the January-March span, Vietnam saw on-year falls in five markets namely China, Cambodia, Laos, Norway, and Finland, three of those also lower than the previous quarter. Among the five, Cambodia dropped most with an on-year decrease of 37.3 per cent, followed by Laos with 36.1 per cent and China with 11.3 per cent.
Vietnam once again witnessed growth in three groups of international arrivals, including those flocking to the nation for doing businesses, visiting relatives, and for holidays during the three month span.
Visitors coming to the communist country for holidays registered the highest rate, at 17.3 per cent, followed by those arriving to the country to visit relatives at 13.9 per cent and to do business with 12.4 per cent
However, the number of vacationers to the country for other purposes still fell, posting an on-year decrease of 5.8 per cent during the period.
In March alone, as many as 360,000 foreign tourists visited the communist country.
The number of visitors from Malaysia saw the largest rise on-month at 80 per cent. It was followed by Thailand with 70 per cent; the Netherlands, 37 per cent; Japan, 36 per cent; Russia, 31 per cent; Australia, 30 per cent; France, 24 per cent; South Korea and Britain, 15 per cent.
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - two of the localities with tourism potential - welcomed 338,400 and more than 700,000 foreign tourists, respectively, during the three-month period.
In particular, the number of Chinese visitors to Hanoi since the beginning of the year rebounded, registering a 42 per cent year-on-year rise after a long slump, accounting for 10.5 per cent of the total foreign arrivals in the city.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, more and more foreign tourists come to the country by sea, thus creating a momentum for economic development in central coastal provinces and cities which boast a large number of well-known landscapes.
Vietnam targets to host as many as 20.9 million tourists this year. Of them, 3.9 million are predicted be foreign arrivals, with the remaining 17 million being domestic vacationers, an on-year increase of 14 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively. (GSO March Edition)
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