Int'l arrivals to Vietnam soar 13 times year-on-year in May

Vietnam welcomed roughly 172,900 international tourists in May, a 70.6% rise over April and 12.8 times higher than the same month last year.

The number of visitors during the first five months of 2022 increased 4.5 times year-on-year. However, this is still 95% lower than the corresponding pre-pandemic period of 2019, the General Statistics Office reported on Monday.

A total 87.8% of foreign visitors arrived by air, up 6.3 times over the same period in 2021. International visitors by road grew 47%, while those by sea dropped 50.8%.

Statistics also show that revenue from lodging and catering services in the five months climbed by 15.7%. The 31st SEA Games contributed to driving the revenue of these services in May up 69.3% year-on-year.

Travel revenue soared by 34.7% from January to May year-on-year, as the tourism industry recovered strongly, and various groups of international tourists visited the country during the region's major sporting event.

The improved figures came after Vietnam, in an effort to rekindle its tourist industry, lifted health declaration requirements on April 27 and subsequently abolished its Covid-19 testing requirement for people entering the country on May 15.

As Covid-19 has been put under control, international routes began to recover swiftly, and Vietnamese airlines have resumed international routes on a regular basis, with plans to increase frequency.

The latest report released by the World Economic Forum showed that Vietnam ranked 52nd in the Travel & Tourism Development Index in 2021, up eight notches against 2019, making the country among three nations in the world with the highest increase in tourism development capacity index.