Vietnam welcomes 12.6 mln foreign visitors, S Korea tops source markets

Vietnam welcomed 1.4 million foreign visitors in December, and 12.6 million in all of 2023, up 93.9% and 240% year-on-year, respectively, the General Statistics Office reported Friday.

The 2023 figure significantly exceeded the set target of eight million, but was still just 70% of pre-pandemic 2019, it said.

Most of the visitors – 11 million (86.9%) - came by air; 1.5 million (12.1%) by road and 126,100 (1%) by waterways.

South Korea was the biggest source market with 3.6 million, up 272.4% year-on-year; followed by mainland China with 1.74 million, up 1,295.7%; Taiwan with 851,024, up 574.3%; the U.S. with 717,073, up 125.4%; and Japan with 589,522, up 237.4%.

Notably, the U.S. was the only non-Asian country in the top 10 for foreign arrivals. Other non-Asian nations with high numbers of foreign arrivals this year were Australia (390,087), the UK (253,522), France (215,508), Germany (200,425), Russia (125,610), and Canada (133,493).

Total 2023 tourism revenues reached VND678 trillion ($27.94 billion), 4.3% above the target, as the industry served 108 million domestic travelers alongside the 12.6 million foreign ones, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Vietnam had 38,000 tourism accommodation facilities with 780,000 rooms this year, including 247 five-star establishments with 80,896 rooms and 368 four-star ones with 50,176 rooms.

For 2024, the tourism administration has set a target of serving 110 million domestic tourists and 17-18 million foreign visitors; earning total revenues of VND840 trillion ($34.61 billion).