Up to 2,698,324 foreign visitors were estimated to visit Vietnam during the first four months of the year, an annual reduction of 12.2 percent.

There were more than 2.2 million airline passengers, while 439,100 and 24,200 tourists entered Vietnam by road and water, respectively. All three groups experienced a drop up to 30 percent from 2014.

The volume of Asian travellers was 1.73 million people, falling 12.9 percent year on year, with the number of Chinese, Lao, Cambodian, Thai and Indonesian nationals showing the highest decreases, ranging from 21 to 36 percent. Meanwhile, more tourists from the Republic of Korea and Singapore visited Vietnam.

There was also a decrease in European visitors, with an annual 8.4 percent drop overall. In contrast, the Americas contributed 229,500 tourists, equalling a year-on-year increase of 3 percent.

Industry experts will now start assessing the reasons behind the significant drop, especially as the number of tourist arrivals was targeted to rise this year.