Vietnam among destinations with slowest international tourism recovery

Vietnam is among the countries at the bottom of a ranking on international tourism recovery compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, compiled by ForwardKeys, a Spain-based tourism trend forecasting company.

The survey of more than 100 destinations and territories showed that Hong Kong recorded a decline of 95% in international arrivals, Japan 89%, Russia 88%, South Korea 80%, Vietnam 77%, Malaysia 76%, New Zealand 76%, Thailand 75%, Indonesia and Australia 71%. This list does not include mainland China, which is not yet open due to its zero-Covid policy.

Vietnam received 2.36 million international arrivals in the first 10 months of the year, 18.8 times year-on-year, but down 83.7% compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, the country's General Statistics Office (GSO) data shows. Tourism revenues in the period reached VND19,700 billion ($792 million), 3.9 times year-on-year.

The top countries in terms of recovery are the Dominican Republic (5% growth), with Turkey, Costa Rica and Mexico all with visitor arrivals equal or similar to the same period in 2019, according to ForwardKeys's annual Most Visited Destinations report.

"The strong representation of Central American and Caribbean destinations towards the top of the list reflects the relative strength of the U.S. outbound market and the approach taken by many highly tourism-dependent countries in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, which, throughout the pandemic, imposed less severe Covid-19 travel restrictions than elsewhere, and in doing so maintained their visitor economies," ForwardKeys commented.

According to the company, although Russia’s invasion of Ukraine massively impacted travel to and from Russia, as numerous countries imposed bans on direct flights, it has not caused long-haul travel to Europe to decline as much as one might have expected.

Travel to Southern Europe, especially to Greece, down 12%, Portugal, down 16%, and Turkey, flat, and to Iceland, down 14%, has held up well.

"However, ForwardKeys expects that second-order consequences of the war, such as rising fuel prices and inflation, will have a delaying effect on travel recovery," it said.