China and South Korea remained the two largest source markets for Vietnam’s tourism with 348,000 and 224,000 visitors this month, taking their total to over 5.72 million in January-November, half of all international arrivals in Vietnam.

Foreign tourists are seen on Nguyen Van Binh book street in downtown HCMC. Visitors from China and South Korea account for half of all international arrivals in Vietnam 

Data of the General Statistics Office shows that the country welcomed 11.6 million foreign visitors in the period, up 27.8% year-on-year.

South Korea was Vietnam’s second biggest source market but posted the highest growth rate of 55.3% over the same period last year. Vietnam had attracted nearly 2.2 million Koreans in the year to end-November.

According to travel firms and tourism promotion agencies, the market will continue growing in the coming time as Vietnam is more attractive to Koreans, especially young people. Danang, HCMC and Hanoi are the most popular tourist attractions for such guests.

Le Thi Thu Trang, marketing director of the Korea Tourism Organization in Vietnam, said more Korean tourists have decided to visit Vietnam instead of Thailand in their honeymoon trips.

Eight air carriers are operating flights between the two countries, and some of them have plans to increase flight frequencies and launch new services. Jeju Air, for example, will operate seven new weekly flights on the HCMC-Incheon route and five others on the Cam Ranh-Incheon route next month.

Data of the customs also shows that more than 3.59 million Chinese tourists came to Vietnam this year to date, up 44.9% year-on-year. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has forecast the number of Chinese visitors might hit a record of more than four million this year.

In addition to China and South Korea, guests from Japan, Europe and Russia also surged in the 11-month period with 729,000, 1.71 million and 517,000 people, growing 7.7%, 17% and 34.8% against the year-ago period, respectively.

Vietnam expects to welcome 13 million international visitors this year, up three million over last year.

SGT