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| Chinese tourists take photos outside St Joseph’s Cathedral in central Hà Nội on May 8. — VNS Photo Bảo Hoa |
Bảo Hoa
South Korean students Kim Jinah and Kim Chaeyeon are on a break from university. They came to Việt Nam hoping to relax and unwind after a long semester.
The two first-time visitors arrived in Hà Nội after spending three days in Sa Pa in the northern province of Lào Cai.
“We went to Cát Cát village in Sa Pa,” said 21-year-old Chaeyeon.
Jinah, also 21, added: “We wore traditional costumes around the village. It was nice. The weather was so good and the landscape was so beautiful.”
The two students are among millions of international tourists visiting Việt Nam.
The country received 7.67 million foreign tourists in the first four months of the year, up nearly 24 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to data released last week by the General Statistics Office. About 5.9 million of them – or nearly 78 per cent – came from Asian countries.
China and South Korea remain the two largest sources of visitors with 1.95 million and 1.58 million arrivals, accounting for 25.4 and 20.6 per cent of all foreign tourists, respectively. Other countries in the top 10 largest markets for Việt Nam include Japan, Cambodia, Australia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
Việt Nam’s attractions seem to have travelled far and wide through social media and television programmes.
“Sa Pa is like a rising place in South Korea, for Korean people. There was so much content, YouTube content, from celebrities that came to Sa Pa,” Jinah said.
23-year-old Yining Huang from Taiwan Island, also a first-time visitor to Việt Nam, said she learned about the country through a travel channel.
“I searched on TLC. It’s like a travel culture channel from Taiwan,” she said. “And we normally know [Việt Nam] from the cuisine, the Vietnamese cuisine in Taiwan, and that’s why we choose to come here and to experience more culture.”
Huang and her group of friends flew straight from Taipei to Hà Nội and arrived at Nội Bài International Airport.
“The first impression when we arrived at the airport was, we think the traffic was really crazy. People were just pushing the horn,” she said. “But I found out that they were really friendly. They always smile at you, and also the food, the vibe here is really, really good, very different from Taiwan.”
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| Asian tourists take a cyclo tour in central Hà Nội. — VNS Photo Bảo Hoa |
Proximity and flexibility
Beautiful landscapes, the friendliness of the people and delicious food are some of the factors that attract visitors to Việt Nam, but they are not all.
According to Nguyễn Thị Huyền, manager at Hà Nội-based travel agency Travel House, there are three reasons Việt Nam attracts visitors from other Asian countries – and especially its number one foreign tourist market: China.
“Việt Nam and China are very close to each other, which is a big advantage because it takes Chinese visitors only a few hours to go to Việt Nam, not more than ten hours by air like those from other countries,” she said.
“Chinese visitors can travel by road to popular tourist attractions in northern provinces and cities. Our visa policy is pretty flexible with electronic visas, and we also offer chartered flights, which are some of the main favourable conditions.
“The third reason is after the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese travellers prefer to go to places with a small population and a laid-back atmosphere, and some tourist magnets in Việt Nam can give them that experience such as Sa Pa, Ninh Bình and Đà Lạt.”
Huyền’s agency had about 1,000 clients in the first quarter of the year, and 40 per cent of them from China and South Korea.
“South Korean tourists often want to go to places close to nature, and places where they can relax that have a chill vibe to take photos to ‘check-in’ online, such as Đà Nẵng, Hội An and Đà Lạt,” she said.
“Chinese tourists often have a very clear plan. The first place they would go after arriving here is Hạ Long, then Ninh Bình, Nha Trang or Đà Lạt,” she said.
“I think apart from sightseeing, Chinese visitors come to Việt Nam for our cuisine, because our food is delicious and suits their tastes, and they may also be looking for business opportunities.”
According to the National Authority of Tourism, data from the travel trend tracking tool Google Destination Insights last week showed that international searches for Việt Nam tourism have grown by about 10-25 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Ranking seventh in the world for growth in destination searches, Việt Nam is also the only Southeast Asian country listed in the top 10, surpassing other competitors in the region such as the Philippines (ranking 18th), Singapore (25th), Thailand (36th), Indonesia (37th) and Malaysia (39th). VNS
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