South Korea tops charts for international tourists in Vietnam

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam attracted more than 895,000 international tourists in March, an increase of more than 20 times over the same period in 2022 but a decrease of 4 per cent compared to the previous month.

In the first quarter, the total number of international arrivals was estimated at 2.7 million, 30 times higher than last year but only 60 per cent of the pre-pandemic figure.

The number of international tourists in Vietnam is witnessing a strong recovery

The report also highlights that the revenue from accommodation and catering services in the first quarter stood at around $7 billion, increasing 28.4 per cent over the same period last year and exceeding the level of $6 billion that was achieved in 2019.

Other revenue from tourism is estimated at $2.9 billion – 2.2 times higher than the same period last year – due to the exciting cultural and tourism activities that took place in many localities in the first months of the year. However, this figure only reached 62 per cent of that seen in 2019.

Asia is currently Vietnam's largest international visitor market. South Korea has surpassed China to achieve the highest figures, with an increase of 55 per cent compared with the same period in 2022.

China (including the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong) ranked second with more than 270,000 visitors, but was still far from the 1.4 million arrivals in the same period in 2019.

The US ranked third with more than 200,000 tourists, an increase of more than 200 per cent over the same period in 2022.

Thailand is Southeast Asia's largest international visitor market for Vietnam, with more than 145,000 arrivals in the first three months – up 96 per cent on-year. It is followed by Cambodia and Singapore with 95,000 and 76,000 respectively, increasing by 48 per cent and 75 per cent compared to 2022.

In 2023, Vietnam's tourism industry has set a goal of welcoming 110 million visitors, of which about 8 million will be international and about 102 million domestic. The total revenue from generated is hoped to hit roughly $28.2 billion.

Although the target is quite modest, in the opinion of many experts, the tourism industry can easily exceed it if it maintains the average growth rate seen in the first three months of the year.