March marked the 10th consecutive month of international visitors to Vietnam declining, according to figures of the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Some 543,300 foreigners visited Vietnam last month, tumbling more than 23.4% on a year ago. This was the sharpest fall in international arrivals in many years.

The country attracted around two million international visitors in the first three months of this year, down 13.7% year-on-year, according to the GSO. The number of visitors from many major markets went down in the first quarter.

The number from Asia, the biggest visitor-generating market of Vietnam, slid 14.1% to more than 1.27 million, with Chinese visitors down a staggering 40.4% compared to the same period last year.

The January-March period saw a year-on-year decrease of 11.1% in European visitors to some 341,800. In the period, Russian arrivals stood at a mere 95,800, declining 27.1% over a year earlier.

Figures of the GSO showed international travelers started to fall in June last year when Chinese-speaking visitors to Vietnam tumbled in the aftermath of China’s illegal deployment in May of a giant oil rig inside Vietnamese waters that triggered tensions on the East Sea.

Tourism sources also ascribed the shrinking international arrivals in the past 10 months to the currency depreciation in Vietnam’s major visitor-generating markets against the U.S. dollar, including Russia and Europe, as well as high tour prices, limited products and little marketing.

Vo Anh Tai, general director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said in addition to the foreign exchange rate volatility, new and emerging destinations in the region like Myanmar have attracted more tourists.

Experts called for the local tourism authority to take swift action to arrest the fall in international arrivals by offering new products at reasonable prices to woo international guests towards the end of this year.

“International travelers now have many options, so Vietnam needs to promote good-for-value products,” Tai said.

Experts stressed the urgent need for the tourism authority to launch a stimulus program and support local travel enterprises to offer competitive products.

Hoang Thi Phong Thu, chairwoman of Anh Duong Travel Company, gave an example that the number of Russians has fallen in Vietnam but increased in Egypt as the latter subsidizes fuel cost for chartered flights bringing Russian travelers to that African country.

Thu said foreign tourists are important guests of restaurants, hotels, travel firms and souvenir shops, and contribute to economic growth of the host nation.

“Can Vietnam adopt such a supporting policy to back the local tourism market in tough times like now? People still want to travel and buy good products though they have less money in their pockets,” Thu said.     

SGT