2-10-2023 (HANOI) Vietnam has celebrated a significant achievement in its tourism sector by welcoming 8.9 million foreign tourists in the first nine months of this year, exceeding the annual target of 8 million. The latest statistics from the General Statistics Office (GSO) indicate a remarkable 4.7-fold increase in foreign tourist arrivals compared to the same period last year.
This achievement, while impressive, is still less than half the number of international visitors that Vietnam used to attract before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when arrivals reached a substantial 18 million.
Of the 8.9 million tourists who visited Vietnam in this period, a significant 87.5 percent chose air travel as their mode of transportation, while 11.8 percent traveled by road, and the remainder by sea.
The majority of these arrivals were from Asia, accounting for 6.85 million visitors, with Europe following at 1.015 million, Americas at 682,800, Oceania at 311,100, and Africa at 20,400.
Vietnam is now setting its sights on a higher foreign arrival target for 2023, aiming to welcome approximately 10-12 million tourists. This information was reported by Vietnam News and attributed to Vu The Binh, chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association.
This impressive growth in foreign arrivals can be attributed in part to the Vietnamese government’s new visa policy, which came into effect on August 15. Under this policy, tourists are granted e-visas with an extended validity period of 90 days, compared to the previous 30 days. Within these 90 days, foreigners can enter and exit Vietnam an unlimited number of times, without the need to apply for new visas.
