HÀ NỘI — The number of international visitors to Việt Nam in the first ten months of 2017 was estimated at 10.47 million.

This translated to a year-on-year surge of 28.1 per cent, according to the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam.

While arrivals by air touched 8.8 million passengers, an increase of 32.8 per cent against the same period last year, nearly 1.4 million visitors arrived by road (up 18 per cent), and over 200,000 people arrived by sea (down 8.1 per cent).

In ten months, visitors from Asia reached 7.9 million, up 32.8 per cent over the same period last year, of which arrivals from most major markets increased significantly. In particular, the number of visitors from China increased by 45.6 per cent, those from the Republic of Korea rose by 53.9 per cent, from Japan increased by 7.7 per cent and those from Malaysia increased by 17.2 per cent. While visitors from Thailand increased by 12.7 per cent, those from Singapore increased 7.8 per cent.

Visitors from Europe in the past ten months surged to around 1.5 million people, up 18.1 per cent against the same period last year, of which the highest increase was from Russian visitors (up 38.3 per cent). Visitors from the West European countries who do not need a visa to Việt Nam, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy also increased, with the highest increase from Spain, up 20.6 per cent.

The number of visitors from the American continent also surged, with 671,000 passengers, a year-on-year increase of 10.4 per cent.

In October alone, international tourist arrivals reached 1.02 million, up 5 per cent and 24.7 per cent, as compared to the previous month and the same period last year, respectively. This is also the seventh month from the beginning of 2017 that the number of international visitors to Việt Nam reached over one million people, per month.

In 2016, the number of foreign tourists to Việt Nam set new records, crossing 10 million visitors, up 26 per cent year-on-year. The total tourism revenue in 2016 was VNĐ400 trillion (US$17.6 billion), accounting for 6.8 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Việt Nam’s Political Bureau has issued an important resolution on the country’s tourism development till 2035. Tourism has been identified as a leading economic sector that can drive socio-economic development.

The country is expected to see 17-20 million international visitors and 82 million domestic visitors, and tourism is expected to account for 10 per cent of the GDP, by 2020. The tourism revenue is forecast to touch US$35 billion by that time.

Việt Nam has also set a target to become one of Southeast Asia’s leading travel destinations by 2030. — VNS