Set a target to welcome 5 million international tourists this year, but in the past 9 months, Vietnam has only achieved 1/3 of target with about 1.7 million visitors.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the number of international visitors to Vietnam in September is estimated at 430,000. In the first 9 months of this year, total number of international visitors to Vietnam was 1.65 million.
This figure is lower than data of General Statistics Office, when in September there were 431,900 international visitors to Vietnam, 45.4 times higher than the same period last year. In the first 9 months of 2022, international visitors to our country reached approximately 1,873 million arrivals, 16.4 times higher than the same period last year but still down 85.4% compared to the same period in 2019, the year without the Covid-19 epidemic.
Thus, compared with the target of 5 million international visitors this year, Vietnam tourism has only gone about one-third of the way.
International visitors have been bustling again, but not as many as expected (photo: Anh Nguyen)
Meanwhile, according to the Bangkok Post, by 2022, Thai tourism is confident to welcome at least 10 million international visitors, double the target of Vietnam’s tourism. In 9 months, the country welcomed 5.7 million foreign visitors. Compared to 3.78 million international visitors by mid-August, within a month and a half, Thailand has attracted 2 million visitors.
It is expected that Thailand will welcome 1.5 million visitors per month in the fourth quarter.
Mr. Phiphat Ratchakitprakan – Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, also expects about 1.5 million more Chinese tourists to come to this country, on the occasion of the APEC Summit in Bangkok in November and if China allows people to travel abroad.
According to the optimistic scenario, Thailand will welcome 12 million international visitors in 2022.
Meanwhile, despite setting the target by half of Thailand, the number of international visitors to Vietnam in September also decreased by 11.2% compared to the previous month (486,400 arrivals).
At the online conference “Linking promotion and advertising to attract international tourists” with tourism management departments at the end of September, Director General of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh admitted that the number of international visitors coming Vietnam is still modest compared to before the pandemic as well as compared to the plan set out for the whole year 2022.
According to the Tourism Market Department, there are a number of objective and subjective reasons affecting the flow of international visitors to Vietnam. Typically, about 60-70% of international visitors come from markets in Northeast Asia that have not yet fully opened to tourism; the market connection of enterprises after the Covid-19 epidemic faced many difficulties; the past time is not the peak season for international tourism; the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict; lack of Vietnam tourism promotion offices abroad;… so the number of international visitors to Vietnam has not reached as expected.
Therefore, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has reported to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to submit to the Government on the Plan to organize a conference to attract foreign tourists to Vietnam expected in October 2022 to discuss solutions to remove difficulties and create convenient for international visitors to Vietnam. In particular, focus on discussing immigration, aviation, market expansion, policies to support tourism businesses, policies to train human resources in tourism and digital transformation in tourism.
@ Vietnamnet
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Source: Vietnam Insider