HA NOI — Viet Nam attracted an estimated 1.5 million foreign arrivals in the first month of this year, a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent, latest data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.

The number of international tourists in January also saw a month-on-month rise of 9.3 per cent partly thanks to a significant increase in the amount of overseas Vietnamese living in Europe, the Americas and Oceania returning home to celebrate the upcoming Tet holiday. 

The rising travel demand of people in Europe and the Americas during their winter holidays also contributed to this positive increase, GSO officials said. 

In the first month of the year, the number of foreigners visiting by air and road rose by 1.4 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, while the number that arrived by sea went down 30.5 per cent year-on-year.

As per the data, tourists from Asia reached more than 1.1 million, up 5.4 per cent year-on-year. Notably, the Republic of Korea beat China to become the leading market for Vietnamese tourism in January with 390,000 visitors, up 23 per cent. Meanwhile, those from mainland China dropped 11 per cent on year to 374,000.

There were also increased numbers of visitors from other Asian markets such as Thailand (40 per cent), Taiwan (31.4 per cent); the Philippines (20 per cent); Japan (11.3 per cent); Malaysia (9.4 per cent) and Indonesia (19 per cent).

At the same time, the number of holiday-goers from Europe rose 3.1 per cent to 233,000, while visitors from the Americas rose 8 per cent to 110,000, according to the data.

During the month, Viet Nam also served 6.6 million local tourists, earning VND56.5 trillion (US$2.43 billion) in tourism revenue, surging 7 per cent over the same month last year.

The country aimed to receive about 18 million foreign visitors and 85 million domestic ones in 2019, and earn more than VND700 trillion ($30.04 billion) from tourism, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

To attract more foreign holiday-makers, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has enhanced tourism promotion activities and information provision.

Viet Nam joined the 39th International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, Spain from January 23-27, aiming to introduce the country’s potential for tourism development. The administration plans to attend a series of other promotion programmes in Germany, Russia, Venezuela, China, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Japan and ASEAN countries in 2019.

In December last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the establishment of a State-run tourism development fund, worth about VND300 billion, which will be used for financing tourism promotion activities. The PM also approved a project which hopes to restructure the industry to turn it into a spearhead economic sector and make Viet Nam one of the most developed tourism nations in Southeast Asia. — VNS