Vietnam welcomes 4.9 million foreign visitors in 8 months
Ho Chi NinhCity : Vietnam received more than 677,000 foreign arrivals in the early days of August, up 22% against the same month last year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
The August figure raised the total number of foreign visitors since early this year to nearly 4.9 million, up 7.9% compared to last year’s same period.
Most of the visitors came from Russia (up 63.1%), China (33.1%), Indonesia (25.6%), Thailand (24.2%) and New Zealand (21.9%).
The tourism sector has achieved nearly 68% of the set target of 7.2 million for the whole year.
Meanwhile, the total number of domestic tourists also increased by 11.7% to 29.3 million, accounting for 83.7% of the set target. Total revenues from the tourism sector are predicted to reach VND138.2 trillion this year, up 22.5% over last year.
Ho Chi Minh City has handled over 2.4 million international visitors in the first eight months, the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism reported.In August alone, around 290,000 foreigners arrived in the city of whom 224,385 traveled by air.
The number of both domestic and foreign visitors increased sharply in August thanks to declining tour prices as the local authorities deployed a string of tourism promotion programs and aviation airlines, transporters, hotels and restaurants offered price discounts.
The local tourism industry was estimated to earn VND 55.439 billion in the first eight months, or a year-on-year increase of 15% and representing 68% of the whole-year target.Source: vietnamnet.vn
