Foreign tourists visiting downtown HCM City on traditional cyclos. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

HÀ NỘI — The number of international visitors to Việt Nam as of October has reached 9.997 million, 4.2 times higher year-on-year, according to the latest report from the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam.

This means that in the first ten months of 2023, Việt Nam has surpassed the target of 8 million international tourists for the whole year by about 25 per cent.

It should be noted that the target was set by tourism authorities early in the year, before China – the biggest source of foreign tourists to Việt Nam in 2019 – announced its reopening plan, including inbound/outbound tourism, after years of stringent border lockdown. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has recently sought to revise the target to 12-13 million as a way to accelerate the recovery and development of the country’s tourism industry.

Compared to 2019, the number of arrivals so far this year still only represents only 69 per cent of the pre-pandemic figure.

In October alone, 1.1 million tourists have come to Việt Nam, 5.5 per cent higher than in September, and up 2.3 times compared to last year’s October. This is the fourth consecutive month that the country has served more than one million foreign tourists.

Tourists from Asia continue to lead the pack, with over 7.754 million coming to Việt Nam in the ten months, followed by Europe (1.121 million), Americas (747,900), Oceania (351,500), and Africa (23,200).

Per country breakdown, the Republic of Korea remained the biggest source of visitors to Việt Nam with 2.9 million holidaymakers, followed by China. The two markets accounted for 42 per cent of the total number of tourists to Việt Nam. The US ranked third while Taiwan (China) and Japan ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the top three markets were Thailand with 392,000 visitors, Malaysia with 372,000 tourists and Cambodia with 326,000 holidaymakers.

In Europe, the three countries with the largest numbers of visitors to Việt Nam were the UK, France and Germany.

Out of the total, arrivals by air reached over 8.7 million, accounting for 87.5 per cent and a 4.2-fold increase compared to the same period last year. Arrivals by land reached nearly 1.2 million, accounting for 11.8 per cent and a 4.5-fold increase. Arrivals by sea reached 69,500, accounting for 0.7 per cent and a 93.2-fold increase.

The Việt Nam National Authority of Tourism attributed the higher-than-expected number of foreign tourist arrivals to Việt Nam to efforts to develop new products, improve service quality and promotion activities.

VNAT has recently organised a tourism promotion programme within the framework of the Việt Nam Cultural Tourism Promotion Festival in the RoK.

It was an annual event, reflecting the close cooperative relationship between the two countries, especially in the fields of tourism and culture. It offered an opportunity for Việt Nam to introduce its traditional cultural identity and promote attractive destinations and tourism products to Korean tourists.

The programme created opportunities for Vietnamese and RoK investors and tourism businesses to meet, explore cooperation and business opportunities, and enhance two-way tourist exchanges. — VNS