International visitors to Vietnam increased by 25% over the same period

The total number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first 8 months of the year reached more than 6.4 million, of which the majority still came from Hong Kong, China.

According to the General Department of Tourism, the highest increase in visitors in the past 8 months continued to come from Hong Kong and China with nearly 93% and 58% respectively. In addition, visitors from South Korea, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Laos, New Zealand, Russia, and Sweden all increased by over 20%. The total number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first 8 months has reached 3/4 of the target set for the whole year of 2016.

Foreign visitors experience Vietnamese cuisine. Photo: Jet Setting Birds.

Although there has been a strong growth in the number of visitors arriving by air and road, the number of visitors arriving by sea has decreased recently, by more than 15% compared to the same period.

Domestic tourists in the first 8 months reached more than 43 million, down more than 2 million compared to the same period last year. However, total revenue from tourists reached more than 265 trillion VND, up 22.5% compared to the first 8 months of 2015.

With the goal of welcoming 8.5 million international visitors in 2016, making tourism a key economic sector by 2020, Vietnam has recently taken new steps. These include providing electronic visas from January 1, 2017, continuing to exempt visas for 1 year for 5 Western European countries, approving the project "Vietnam Tourism Product Development Strategy to 2025, with a vision to 2030", focusing on prioritizing the development of 4 tourism product lines (sea and island tourism; cultural tourism; eco-tourism; urban tourism)...

According to VNE