Việt Nam's tourism sector earns US$23.7 billion in revenue in ten months

Women in traditional áo dài cycling inside the Thăng Long Imperial Citadel complex as part of promotional activities for Hà Nội's tourism in October. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhật Anh

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam's total revenue from tourism activities is estimated at VNĐ582.6 trillion (US$23.7 billion) in the first ten months of 2023, according to the Việt Nam National Authority of Tourism.

This represents an increase of 24.7 per cent in revenues compared to the first ten months of 2022 (Việt Nam started to completely resume outbound/inbound tourism from March 15, 2022 after years of stringent border lockdown due to COVID-19).

In the period, the country welcomed 10 million foreign tourists, exceeding the target of 8 million for the whole year, and served 98.7 million domestic holiday-makers. In October alone, the tourism sector served 1.11 million foreign visitors (for the fourth consecutive month) and 5.2 million domestic tourists.

According to the nine-month socio-economic report released by the General Statistics Office, the service and tourism sector grew by 6.24 per cent, contributing 53.34 per cent of the total overall growth of the country's GDP.

In November, localities across the nation have plans to organise various events and festivals to attract more tourists, including Hà Nội Tourist Gift Festival, Ninh Thuận Tourism and Culture Day in Cần Thơ City, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Tourism Week, and Măng Đen Culture Festival in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.

Travel companies in Việt Nam are preparing to anticipate opportunities of the peak season of both inbound and outbound tours.

At present, the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan (China), and Japan are widely sought after by tourists thanks to good tour prices. A representative of Saigontourist – one of Việt Nam's largest travel companies, said that tours with new destinations or offering new experiences are attracting tourists, many of whom are willing to spend large amounts of money to enjoy new experiences.

Nguyễn Nguyệt Vân Khánh, a representative of Vietravel – also a major Vietnamese travel firm, stated that with some tours that draw attention by a large number of Vietnamese tourists, such as those to China, the company always proactively links and cooperates with tourism promotion agencies, and localities to step up promotion activities and introduce tours at good prices so as to bring many impressive experiences to customers.

Online travel platform Agoda on October 24 for the first time announced Việt Nam's New Horizons – a list of new emerging destinations in the country that few tourists have known.

The list is made based on the results of comparing search data for the same period in 2022 and 2023 about emerging destinations, increasing interest from both domestic and foreign tourists.

On the top of the list is Tam Đảo resort in the northern mountainous of Vĩnh Phúc with search traffic increasing by 279 per cent over the same period last year.

Other destinations are Bắc Ninh – a spiritual city with rich traditions in the northern region with a 234 per cent increase in search volume; Sầm Sơn coastal city in the central province of Thanh Hoá, 228 per cent; and Phú Quý – a small island off the coast of Binh Thuan province. The coastal city of Quy Nhon with its romantic beaches and unique cuisine is also included in the list.

Vũ Ngọc Lâm, Director of Agoda in Việt Nam, said that in addition to the most popular and famous destinations in Việt Nam which many tourists visit regularly, Agoda found that some places with fewer visitors had a clear increase in searches.

Agoda wants to take advantage of this opportunity to introduce new places and find out what attracts those who love to explore destinations that few tourists have come to.

He said Việt Nam has many interesting things to explore, in which second- and third-class destinations are increasingly sought after. Therefore, Agoda regularly introduces many incentives to help tourists have the best experiences when travelling to Việt Nam.

VNAT and travel platform Traveloka have also freshly inked a memorandum of understanding to enhance their public-private partnership (PPP) in promoting the sustainable growth of the industry in Việt Nam, marking their first step towards improving tourism experiences and promoting local destinations to domestic and foreign tourists.

VNAT Vice Chairman Hà Văn Siêu stressed that the Vietnamese Government pays significant attention to the management and development of tourist destinations, aiming at a healthy tourism environment and better branding and competitiveness.

Co-founder of Traveloka Albert said Việt Nam has tremendous growth potential for the industry and stands out as a leading country in Southeast Asia in terms of digital advancement. Through providing comprehensive features on the travel platform, Traveloka aims to facilitate the digitisation of the local tourism processes.

The collaboration between both sides will serve the growing travel demand at Việt Nam’s popular tourist destinations, contributing to the sustainable development of local partners and businesses, he noted.