Dao Loan
Foreign tourists take photos at the flower street on Ham Nghi Boulevard in HCMC’s District 1 during the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet), which wrapped up last week. The number of international visitors to Vietnam last month fell 10.2% month-on-month - PHOTO: KIEU GIANG
The first two months of the year saw the number of tourists from the largest visitor-generating market for Vietnam declining 40.3% from a year ago, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Many local travel agencies reported falls in Chinese tourists entering Vietnam through border gates in the northern region and by air in the period. However, Chinese visitor arrivals in Danang and Khanh Hoa Province have rebounded after sharp falls in the middle of last year when China illegally placed a giant oil rig in Vietnam’s waters in the East Sea.
There were five scheduled and 15 chartered flights connecting China and Danang City each week before April last year but 13 of them were called off after the East Sea tension broke in May. However, the number of weekly flights has risen to 21 to date.
February also saw a strong year-on-year increase of 68.1% in the number of travelers from South Korea, which is one of the major markets for Vietnam’s tourism sector. But other key markets such as Japan, the United States and Russia encountered slight rises or drops last month.
Some 756,000 foreigners traveled to Vietnam last month, down 10.2% compared to the same period last year. February also marked the ninth consecutive month of decline in international visitors to the country.
Đăng ký: VietNam News