HANOI, 4 April 2018: Vietnam’s tourist arrivals reached 4.2 million, January to March, representing 30% rise year-on year, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported earlier this week.
Vietnam welcomed 12.9 million international visitors in 2017.
Government officials believe the increase could be attributed to easier visa rules and more direct airline flights from key source markets.
The travel industry is urging the government to further ease visa rules and extend visa-free stays for European nations when the waiver runs out. But a look at the statistics shows that many of the countries enjoying visa-free travel to Vietnam are way down the top 10 chart that is dominated by China and South Korea.
China topped the supply list with 1.35 million trips to Vietnam over the first three months of the year. In March alone 454,000 Chinese nationals visited Vietnam, up 52.6%.
South Korea arrivals also jumped 67.4% year-on-year to 273,000 in March. The two top source markets alone supplied 2.24 million of the total 4.2 million visits, during January to March.
The flood of Chinese visitors has prompted criticism that the tourism flow should be controlled especially to national parks and beach resorts. In the Chinese market there have also been calls for a minimum price guarantee to end zero dollar tours that have very little financial value for the host country.
