In January-March, more than 4.6 million foreigners chose Vietnam as a holiday destination, representing increases of 72% over the same period last year and 3.2% compared to that in the same period of 2019. The sector also served 30 million domestic tourists. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at VND195 trillion (US$7.8 billion).

According to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, major markets in Northeast Asia continued to see remarkable growth and are the main driving force for the recovery while those in Southeast Asia also grew well and in Europe continued to grow strongly thanks to the effect of the unilateral visa exemption policy by Vietnam. The recovery of the Chinese market in the period reached 69%, showing a positive sign.

Major tourist destinations across the country also saw positive results in the past three months, attributable to early communication, advertising and promotion to stimulate tourism demand and favourable visa policies.

Notably, Hanoi welcomed about 6.54 million visitors, including around 1.4 million foreigners, representing year-on-year rises of 10.9% and 40%, respectively, and earned more than VND25 trillion.

The central province of Quang Nam, home to the world cultural heritage sites of Hoi An ancient city and My Son Sanctuary, served over 1.6 million visitors, including more than 910,000 foreigner. The number of foreign arrivals represented a 36% year-on-year rise.

Thanks to its promotion efforts, the central province of Khanh Hoa which boasts the renowned Nha Trang beach city welcomed 2.1 million holiday-makers, of whom over 1.2 million are foreigners, during January-March.

Other localities like Da Nang and Binh Dinh also reported impressive results.

Besides the target of 18-million foreign arrivals, the sector also aims to serve 110 million domestic ones to earn VND850 trillion.

To that end, VNAT Director Nguyen Trung Khanh stressed the need to innovate promotion methods; focus on exploiting customer market segments and products that Vietnam has strengths in such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), golf, community-based tourism, cuisine, health care; and expand railway tourism.

It is also necessary to establish offices to promote Vietnamese tourism abroad, firstly in Vientiane, he added.