Average tourist spending in HCMC at $145
Vietnam aims to lure 18 million foreign tourists in 2019

The 2018 Vietnam Tourism Annual Report said last year there were more than 4.9 million visitors from China, or 32 per cent of all foreign arrivals.

Without saying how much various nationals spent per day on average, the report merely said spending by Chinese was estimated at VND94.7 trillion (US$4 billion), or 24.7 per cent of total tourism revenues.

A Chinese tourist thus spent VND19 million ($818) on average during their visit while South Koreans, who made up the second largest number of visitors, spent VND26.3 million ($1,100) each.

There were 3.4 million South Koreans, or 22.5 per cent of all international arrivals, and they spent an estimated VND92 trillion ($3.96 billion), or 24 per cent of total tourism revenues.

The report said tourists from Australia, Russia and the US spent a lot of money on average and had lengthy stays.

Australian tourists accounted for the highest average spending of VND36.6 million ($1,500), followed by Russians with VND33.9 million ($1,460) and Americans with VND32.4 million ($1,390).

Last year Vietnam received 15.49 million foreign visitors, a year-on-year increase of 19.9 per cent.

The country’s top ten source markets were China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the US, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, and the UK, which accounted for 83 per cent of all arrivals and 78 per cent of tourism revenues.

Last year tourism revenues were worth more than VND637 trillion ($27.44 billion) with 60.1 per cent coming from international tourists and the rest from domestic tourists.

In the first half of this year Asia remained the largest source market for the tourism sector, accounting for 77 per cent of foreign arrivals in Vietnam, according to the General Statistics Office.

Tourists from Europe and the US accounted for 14 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

The number of international visitors totalled 8.5 million, up 7.5 per cent year-on-year.

VNS