HANOI, 12 December 2019: Vietnam welcomed 16,298,423 international visitors from January to November 2019, according to the latest figures released by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
It represents a 15.4% increase when compared with the same period last year.
VNAT started the year off forecasting 2019 would close with 18 million visits but based on the 11 months’ result and factoring in an estimated December total of 1,470,431 (7% increase on December 2018) the performance could fall just a shade short of the target accumulating 17.8 million visits for the entire year.
During November alone tourist arrivals reached 1,809, 580 an increase of 11.8% over the previous month and a whopping 39% when compared with November 2018.
More than 13 million tourists arrived on airlines up 14% with around 3 million travelling overland an increase of 21%.
During the 11 months, China dominated as the top source markets with 5,247,993 arrivals up 15.1% followed by South Korea 3,866,066 arrivals up 22.3%. Third-placed Japan delivered 872,225 visits up 15.4%, and Taiwan (4) supplied 846,238 visits up 30.2%. The US continued in fifth place, supplying 683,876 visits up 8.2%.
Russia continues to be an essential market supplying 585,647 visits, but the growth rate is weak at around 6%.
Another market worth watching is Thailand that supplied 451,201 visits up by a massive 47.1% mainly due to improved airline connections with cities and beach destinations in Vietnam. Also, the strengthening of the Thai baht has boosted outbound travel from Thailand with Asian destinations the first to benefit.
The Philippines (164,211 visits) and Indonesia (97,231 visits) both delivered a 20% growth for Vietnam attributed mainly to new airline services.
Hong Kong, previously one of Vietnam’s expanding supply markets, declined by 12% over the 11 months, recording 50,262 visits caused by six months of political unrest in Hong Kong that slowed outbound travel bookings. It was the only Asian market to register a decline.
