US Tourists to Vietnam Increase Sharply in June

US Tourists to Vietnam Increase Sharply in June

Travelers from the US to Vietnam made a boom in June with more than 35,000 tourists joining tours to the communist nation in the month, posting a jump of 48.5 per cent over the previous month, according to figures from the Vietnam General Statistics Office (GSO).

The surge is allegedly attributed to positive effects from the first official visit to the US made by a Vietnamese leader, Premier Phan Van Khai, on June 19-25 and a series of cultural and art performances made by Vietnamese artists in the country during the historical trip.

"The move has roused special attention of the American people to Vietnam, helping promote Vietnam's images to travelers of the richest country," said an official from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Other indexes from GSO also revealed that the communist nation has served over 309,000 international arrivals in June, a slight rise of 2 per cent over May but the total number in the first half of this year has increased 23.7 per cent on-year to more than 1.72 million thanks to the impressive influx in the first four months.

During the first six months, Finland was the only unique market making a small fall while all of the other 31 listed countries reported rises with Spain, Russia and Cambodia ranked the highest, jumping 127 per cent, 122 per cent and 118 per cent respectively.

China, the U.S., S. Korea, Taiwan and Japan remained Vietnam's top five largest markets with nearly 406,000, 167,000, 154,000, 138,000 and 137,000 arrivals in the January-June period, up 5.7 per cent, 19.4 per cent, 60.3 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 21.6 per cent on-year, accordingly, although the figures from China and Japan made a decrease in June.

Particularly, since the Vietnamese Government granted visa-exemptions to travelers from Scandinavian nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland in late April, the number has been increasing sharply by 41.6 per cent, 178.8 per cent, 21.4 per cent and 49.4 per cent respectively on-month in June.

To meet the possibly higher rise in the second half of this year, VNAT has mapped out a plan on the development of the whole sector targeting enhancing the capacity and quality of the accommodation system.

Vietnam hopes to welcome 3.2 million international arrivals and 15 million domestic holidaymakers in 2005, earning VND30 trillion (US$1.91 billion) from tourism services, and posting respective year-on-year increases between 10-15 per cent.

By 2010, the figures are expected at six million, 23 million and around US$4.4 billion, correspondingly.

T.V