The General Statistics Office (GSO) reported that Vietnam received 3.66 million foreign travelers in 2022, which was 23.3 times higher than the year before. Vietnam also saw a high growth rate of 168.3 percent in the number of domestic travelers to 101.3 million in the year, which was even higher than the pre-pandemic period.

The industry continued to flourish in the first months of the year. Just within the 6-day Tet holiday, Jan 21-26, the industry served 9 million domestic travelers, up by 47.5 percent compared with the 2022 Tet, earning turnover of VND17.5 trillion.

Strong recovery has also been reported in destinations such as Tay Ninh, Phu Quoc and Ninh Binh.

Tay Ninh has been attracting travelers since Tet and more and more travelers are still flocking there after the holiday. On February 11-12 alone, the Sun World Ba Den Mountain's cable car system served 235,000 visitors to Nui Ba.

Meanwhile, Phu Quoc is expected to see a boom this year. It received 4.7 million travelers last year, or 25 percent higher than the planned figure. The island received 185,099 travelers last Tet, an increase of 23.6 percent, and 13,851 foreign travelers, an increase of 184 percent.

New products

Calling Phu Quoc a bright star in the awakening of Vietnam’s tourism, Tuong Huu Loc, deputy head of ATI, said the secret of Phu Quoc’s success lies in the network of well-connected air routes and modern infrastructure for tourism, especially new diverse entertainment services in both the northern and southern parts of the island.

The most attractive points in Phu Quoc are the Sunset Town complex, with the world's longest 3-wire cable car system to Hon Thom, the Sun Word Phu Quoc entertainment complex, Kiss the Stars show, and Cau Hon (Kiss) Bridge.

According to Loc, travelers tend to choose 3-day-and-2-night or 4-day-and-3-night tours to Phu Quoc. In general, they spend 1-3 days on the resorts and entertainment complexes in the northern part, and spend the other 1-2 days to experience the Hon Thom cable car, entertainment places, beaches and wonderful resorts in the southern part.

In other provinces, local authorities cooperate with private enterprises to create new tourism products and services. In Tay Ninh, the new cable car system Tam An linking Ba Pagoda and the top of the mountain.

In Da Nang, a series of events were organized, including Sun Fest carnival and Take Me to the Sun festival. 

Loc said local authorities need to set a favorable investment corridor for strategic investors to develop projects to exploit resources for tourism development.

N. Ha