Vietnam welcomes more than 13 million foreign visitors in 2017

According to latest statistics of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Vietnam ranks first in Asia and sixth among ten countries with the world’s fastest growing tourist destinations for 2017. The achievement is attributed to great efforts of all ministries, departments and localities to develop tourism into a spearhead economic industry.

In November alone, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam hit nearly 1.2 million, up 14.4% compared to October. This is the eighth month of this year the country welcomed more than 1 million foreign arrivals.

Foreign arrivals to the country have grown sharply over the last two years. The growth brings turnover of the tourism industry to nearly VND515 trillion (US$23 billion) this year, which is up 25.2% against last year and contributes 7% to the country’s GDP.

Worthy of note is that early this year, the Politburo issued Resolution No8 on developing tourism into a key economic industry. The National Assembly passed the revised Law on Tourism. The Government also approved two visa policies, namely granting e-visas for foreigners and exempting visas for visitors from five Western European countries – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which has facilitated travelling and attracting more tourists to Vietnam.

Besides, the promotion of Vietnam images through the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Central Da Nang City and comprehensive measures that the tourism sector has carried out recently have also contributed to the growth of the tourism industry.

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has implemented marketing campaigns, taken part in international travel fairs such as Travex in Singapore, ITB in Germany, MITT in Russia, JATA in Japan and Top Resa in France and welcomed Famtrip delegations to Vietnam to study the tourism market.

It has also organized many tourism promotion programs in Australia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the VNAT, said 2017 closes with remarkable achievements of the tourism sector. It shows that the goals set by the Politburo are likely to be reached.