The latest figures released by the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed a sharp rise in the number of foreign travelers. As many as 172,900 foreign travelers came in May, up by 70.6 percent over April and 12.8 percent over May 2021. Analysts say this is a positive sign after Vietnam announced full tourism reopening on March 15, international air routes resumed, and international delegations came to Vietnam to attend SEA Games 31. 

According to GSO, the number of travelers from Oceania and America saw the sharpest increases, by 17,806 and 49,675, respectively, which means up by 2,918 percent and 2,192 percent, followed by the travelers from Europe (65,253, up by 975 percent). Meanwhile, 231,000 travelers were from Asia, up by 222 percent and Africa 1,583 travelers, up by 168 percent.

Of these, 320,700 travelers came to Vietnam by air, which accounted for 87.8percent of total foreign travelers to Vietnam, or 6.3 times higher than the same period last year. The remaining travelers came by land and a very small proportion by sea.

Google’s market analyses show a rapid increase in the number of searches on Vietnam after tourism reopening on March 15.

Vietnam is one of a few countries with the highest growth rate of searches – 75 percent. The markets with the highest number of searches on Vietnam’s tourism are the US, Australia, Singapore, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, India, the UK and Thailand.

The number of searches for flights to Vietnam has been surging since early March. As of March 1, the number of searches had increased by 283 percent over the same period last year, while the figure had reached 386 percent as of March 15, 600 percent as of early April and 800 percent as of mid-April.

The number of international searches for accommodations in Vietnam is also on the rise. As of March 1, the number of searches had increased by 27 percent, while the figures had surged to 40 percent as of mid-March, and 114 percent as of early April compared with the same periods last year.

Statistics also show considerable improvement of domestic tourism. The revenue from accommodations and food services of the first five months of the year increased by 15.7 percent over the same period last year.

The high demand, plus SEA Games 31, helped increase the revenue of the sector by 69.3 percent in May. The revenue of some localities saw sharp increases, such as Can Tho (39.7 percent), Hanoi (34.2 percent), Dong Nai (22.6 percent) and Quang Ninh (17.3 percent).

Ngoc Ha