Foreign visitors to Vietnam reach 4.2 million people in the first quarter of 2018, up 30.9 percent year on year. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The tourism industrysaw a strong start in 2018 as the international tourist arrivals to Vietnamreached over 4.2 million people in the first quarter of the year, an increaseof 30.9 percent year on year.
According to the General Statistics Office(GSO), Vietnam welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors in March, the thirdconsecutive month the foreign tourist arrivals exceeded a million.
About 3.1 million foreigners came from Asiancountries in the first three months, up 37.6 percent year on year. Visitors fromthe Republic of Korea showed the highest growth of 69.2 percent, followed bythose from China (42.9 percent).
Tourists from Europe rose by 15.4 percentfrom the same period last year with significant growths reported in those fromRussia (15.8 percent), the UK (14.4 percent), Sweden (20.6 percent) and France(12 percent). Travellers from America increased by 11.5 percent year on year.
The country earned more than 10 trillion VND(440 million USD) from tourism, up 30.3 percent year on year with Ho Chi MinhCity posting the strongest surge of 32.3 percent.
Vietnam aims to serve between 15 – 17 millionforeigners and 78 million domestic travellers this year, with total revenueexpected to hit 620 trillion VND (27.28 billion USD), up 21.35 percent year onyear.
The continuous expansion of the tourism can be partly attributed toVietnam’s active tourism promotion overseas since the beginning of the year.
Earlier this month, the country took part in the 26th MoscowInternational Travel and Tourism Exhibition (MITT) in Russia, one of theworld’s five largest travel fairs held annually since 1994. This eventattracted over 1,900 businesses and representatives from 192 countries andterritories.
Russia ranks sixth in the number of touriststo Vietnam. In 2017, Vietnam received some 574,000 Russian visitors, up 32.3percent from 2016, who mostly came to central and southern destinations likeNha Trang, Phan Thiet and Phu Quoc. The country expects to welcome 1 millionRussian guests by 2020.
On March 28, the national flag carrierVietnam Airlines started deploying Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft for theHanoi-Moscow air route in an effort to meet increasing demand of Russiantravellers.-VNA
VNA
