Việt Nam welcomes nearly 10 million foreign visitors in first 7 months, with a big increase in numbers from Europe

Foreign tourists checking out souvenirs on sale at Bến Thành Market, HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

HÀ NỘI — As of July 2024, international arrivals to Việt Nam reached nearly 10 million, an increase of 51 per cent compared to the same period last year and 1.9 per cent higher than in 2019, before COVID-19 pandemic struck, according to the latest report from the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam.

Travellers arriving by air reached 8.4 million, accounting for 84.2 per cent of the total international arrivals, while arrivals by land reached 1.4 million, accounting for 14.1 per cent and arrivals by sea reached 165,500 (1.7 per cent, tripling compared to the same period last year).

The tourism industry recorded strong growth in the number of visitors from Europe, with a 47.3 per cent increase. Other markets also saw high increases, such as Asia with 57.1 per cent (mainly due to the increase in Chinese visitors), Australia with 27.3 per cent and the Americas with 9.7 per cent.

South Korea and China remain the two largest international tourist markets for Việt Nam.

July saw 1.15 million international arrivals, the least number of foreign travellers in the year so far, continuing the downward trend for the low season (Việt Nam's peak international tourism season is from October to March next year), but this is still 11 per cent higher than last July.

Although the number of Chinese travellers in July decreased compared to June (with 310,000 and 249,200 visitors respectively), over the first seven months of this year, Chinese visitors still increased by 190 per cent and South Korean visitors increased by 37.2 per cent compared to the same period last year.

In the list of top markets with the largest number of international guests to Việt Nam in July, Taiwan (China) had 101,465 visitors, the United States had 62,900 visitors, Japan 44,569 visitors and Australia had 37,853 visitors.

Notably, the number of visitors from Europe recorded strong growth, with a total of more than 103,000 visitors in July, up 9.4 per cent compared to the previous month.

Among them, Russian visitors increased by 75.7 per cent, Italian visitors by 61 per cent, French visitors by 33.4 per cent, British visitors by 25.2 per cent, Spanish visitors by 38.3 per cent and German visitors by 27.4 per cent.

The growth is attributed to the favourable visa policies and efforts by management agencies and tourist businesses and localities in promoting and promoting tourism.

The summer period Việt Nam is usually peak season for domestic tourism, as students enjoy the summer break and families usually take this opportunity to go on holiday.

Travel and tourism revenue in the first seven months of 2024 is estimated at VNĐ35.2 trillion (nearly US$1.4 billion), up 31.8 per cent compared to the same period last year. Some localities saw strong increases such as HCM City (up by 42.2 per cent), Đà Nẵng (up 38.6 per cent), Cần Thơ (up 33.7 per cent), Hà Nội (up 29.7 per cent) and Quảng Ninh (up 21 per cent). — VNS