Vietnam welcomes over 4.5 million foreign visitors in first quarter

The information was released by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on March 29.

Accordingly, arrivals by air, sea and road were up 4.5%, 37.4% and 26.2%, respectively, over the same period last year.

Asian visitors saw a year-on-year increase of 7.5%. Of which, China still has the largest amount of tourists travelling to Vietnam with over 1.2 million, but the figure was down 5.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, visitors from the Republic of Korea increased by 24.1%, from Japan by 8.3%, from Taiwan (China) by 26%, from Thailand by 49.3% and Malaysia by 11.1%.

European arrivals were estimated to surge 6.1% over the same period last year, while those from America were up 6.3%.

In the first quarter, domestic tourists reached around 24.9 million, including 12.6 million staying.

The total revenue from tourism was VND175.1 trillion, up 8.35% year-on-year.

Also today, The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) announced the EU's support for the Vietnamese tourism sector this year.

Accordingly, a technical assistance project began in February and will be implemented for 12 months, aiming to help Vietnam to gain a better position in the changing international tourism market.

In addition, EU experts will work with Vietnamese partners to build a set of destination competitiveness indicators.

(Source: NDO)