Vietnam, the sun warm Southeastern Asian nation, received around 2.1 million international arrivals in the first half of 2007, up 14.7 per cent from 2006, according to General Statistics Office (GSO).
The GSO has, however, not counted total revenue of the hospitality sector during the period.
South Korea, China, the US and Japan remain the top sources of visitors to Vietnam in the January-June span.
Notably, China walked over South Korea to retain its position as largest tourism market of Vietnam with more than 275,700. The runners-up were South Korea with 262,900, up 26.5 per cent, the US with 209, 910, posting an on-year increase of 5.1 per cent and Japan with 208,200, up 20.6 per cent.
Arrivals from China, however, down 11.4 per cent during the six-month span. The drop was attributed to Chinese government restrictions to limit the number of its citizens crossing the border to patronize casinos.
Top visitor markets of Vietnam with the strongest year-on-year growth are Russia (65.4 per cent), Italy (60.7 per cent) and Malaysia (59.9 per cent).
Once again, Vietnam saw on-year falls in four markets in the first six months namely China, Cambodia, Laos, and Norway. Among the four, Laos dropped most with an on-year decrease of 23.5 per cent, followed by Cambodia, 22.1 per cent and China, 11.4 per cent.
Vietnam also witnessed growth in three groups of international arrivals, including those flocking to the nation for doing businesses, visiting relatives, and for holidays during the reviewed time.
Specifically, visitors coming to the communist country for holiday registered the highest rate, at 24 per cent, followed by those arriving to the country for business, at 10.6 per cent and for visiting relatives, 4.8 per cent
The number of vacationers to the country for other purposes still fell, posting an on-year down of 19.4 per cent.
In June alone, 335,000 foreign tourists visited the communist country. China, South Korea, the US and Japan were also the biggest markets of the country in the month.
The large number is considered a good signal for the Vietnamese tourism industry. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) also expects that the country will welcome from 4 to 4.4 million foreign tourists this year, 400,000 – 800,000 more than in 2006. (GSO Edition June)
Vietnamese
