Welcoming over 2.4 million international visitors in four months.

In the first four months of 2013, the number of international visitors to Vietnam was estimated at over 2.4 million, a decrease of 5.3% compared to the same period last year.

According to the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, this downward trend has been ongoing since the beginning of the year and has not yet improved. This is an unusual and worrying sign of decline.

International tourists arrive at Lao Chai. (Photo: Thanh Ha/VNA)

Specifically, the number of visitors arriving by air reached nearly 2 million, a decrease of 6.4%; visitors arriving by land totaled 348,000, an increase of 1.3%; and visitors arriving by sea totaled 78,600, a decrease of 3.7%.

In the first four months of the year, the number of international visitors to Vietnam for tourism and leisure reached 1.5 million, a decrease of 3.8% compared to the same period in 2012; the number of visitors for business was 406,400, a decrease of 5.4%.

Regarding the market, international visitors to Vietnam mainly come from a number of countries such as China with 547,500 arrivals, an increase of 6.7%; from South Korea with 280,100 arrivals, an increase of 2%; from Australia with 118,500 arrivals, an increase of 6.8%; and from Russia with 112,900 arrivals, an increase of 51%.

However, the number of visitors from some markets such as Japan decreased by 3.3% to 205,000; visitors from the US decreased by 6.9% to 165,200; and visitors from Taiwan totaled 116,000, a decrease of 25.6%.

To overcome this situation and attract international tourists to Vietnam, in the coming period, the Vietnamese tourism industry will continue to effectively implement tourism stimulus programs.

Along with expanding the promotion of Vietnam's tourism image to new markets, the tourism industry will continue to promote and collaborate with foreign travel agencies to create new tours, routes, and tourism products to attract even more foreign tourists to Vietnam.

According to (VNA) - LC