Foreign visitors to Vietnam hits 11.6 million in 11 months

This is the eighth month this year that Vietnam has welcomed more than 1 million foreign travelers.

The number of visitors from Asia rose 32.6% over eleven months compared to last year’s corresponding period. The highest growth was seen in travelers from the Republic of Korea (up 55.3%), trailed by China (up 44.9%), Taiwan (up 20.9%), Malaysia (up 16.5%), Thailand (up 12.1%), Singapore (up 7.4%), and Japan (up 7.7%).

Tourists from Europe are estimated to have increased 17% compared to last year, mostly from Russia (up 34.8%). Visitors from five Western European markets, which are visa exempt for up to 15 days, also increased remarkably with arrivals from the UK seeing a rise of 11.3%. The others are France up 6.7%, Germany 14.1%, Spain 19.8% and Italy 12.8%.

At a recent conference to discuss the implementation of the government’s action plan of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien forecast that until the end of the year, the number of foreign arrivals to Vietnam may reach 12.8 million, up 28% over last year.

In the 2016-2017 period, the number of international visitors to Vietnam jumped nearly 60% compared to 2015 – the highest growth so far. Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien said Vietnam’s tourism sector need to speed up its growth rate to catch up with other regional countries in tourism development.