The increase was largely attributed to the Government’s decision to allow five localities to welcome back international tourists on a trial basis, starting in the middle of November. The visitors were permitted to join package tours to enter the country via charter flights and international commercial flights to designated places.
The five localities are Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, Da Nang, and Quang Ninh that are home to internationally recognized tourist destinations such as Hoi An ancient town, Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang Beach, Phu Quoc resort and the Cham Towers Complex.
Overall, the first 11 months of the year saw just 140,000 foreign travelers enter Vietnam, a year-on-year decrease of 96.3%.
Of the total, visitors arriving by air made up 68.9%, down 96.9%, whilst those entering by road accounted for 30.7%, a drop of 92.9%, and those coming in by sea represented just 0.4%, a fall of 99.7%.
Nguyen Trung Khanh, general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said that the welcoming of the first group of foreign tourists was an important event ass it helped gradually revive the tourism sector after a long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The VNAT recently launched its “Live fully in Vietnam” tourism promotion campaign in order to strengthen communications and open the country up to visitors from abroad. To enhance the effectiveness of the campaign, the VNAT is actively developing promotional video clips along with publishing images and articles on both international and domestic media channels.
