International tourist arrivals to Vietnam in the first nine months totaled 7.265 million, an increase of 25 per cent year-on-year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Of the total, 6,108,948 people arrived by air, up 29.7 per cent, 111,231 by sea, down 13.7 per cent down, and 1,045,201 by land, up 10.8 per cent.  

Domestic tourist arrivals stood at 48.8 million in the period. Total tourism revenue was estimated at VND291.161 trillion ($13.05 billion), a 20.2 per cent increase year-on-year.

Tourists from northeast Asia saw the strongest growth, such as Hong Kong, up 79 per cent year-on-year, China 57.7 per cent, South Korea 39.9 per cent, and Taiwan 15.7 per cent.

Those from China and South Korea totaled 3.1 million, or 43 per cent of all international visitors to Vietnam. 

Tourist numbers from five visa-exempt countries all recorded double-digit growth: Italy 31.1 per cent, Spain 27.9 per cent, the UK 23.1 per cent, Germany 18.6 per cent, and France 13.8 per cent.

Russia is among the Top 10 countries with the fastest growing number of tourist coming to Vietnam, totaling almost 300,000 in the first nine months.   

Total international tourist arrivals in September were estimated at 813,007, down 9.6 per cent down against August but up 28 per cent year-on-year. Of these, 670,015 arrived by air, accounting for 82.4 per cent, by sea 12,382, or 1.5 per cent, and by land 130,610, or 16.1 per cent.

VNAT has been completing key tasks recently, such as preparing draft amendments to the Law on Tourism, improving plans to develop tourism into a major economic sector, tightening management over accommodation, and successfully organizing major tourism events such as an international tourism conference and the 5th Asian Beach Games.

It has set a new target for the fourth quarter of welcoming 9.6 million international tourist arrivals (from the previous 8.5 million) while maintaining its target of 60 million domestic tourists.

VN Economic Times