Vietnam welcomes nearly 8 million foreign tourists in first half
The number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first six months of 2018 surged 27.2% year-on-year to 7.89 million, the General Statistics Office announced on June 29.
Foreign tourists in Hanoi
Arrivals by air, road, and sea in the reviewed period recorded annual increases of 22.2%, 63.7% and 1.7%, respectively while growth was also seen in the numbers of visitors from all five continents.
The results were attributed to efforts taken by the tourism sector, especially efforts to promote Vietnam’s tourism abroad.
Most recently, a tourism promotion programme was organised in the four European countries of Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic from June 19-28.
Notably, this was the first time that Vietnamese tourism has been promoted in Hungary, which reported a rise of 30% in the number of visitors to Vietnam in 2017.
A series of activities have been also organised in Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu and Busan of the Republic of Korea from June 18-25. Last year, Vietnam welcomed 2.4 million Korean tourists, up 56.4% from the previous year. In the first half of this year, over 1.7 million Korean visitors travelled to Vietnam, soaring 60.7% annually.
From July 1, tourists from the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy will enjoy visa exemptions in the next three years until June 30, 2021 when travelling to Vietnam.
From September 25 to October 7, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism plans to hold tourism promotion activities in France, Spain, Italy and Germany in order to attract more tourists from these markets./.
NDO
