The number of international visitor arrivals to Vietnam in the first quarter of this year has reached to over 4.6 million, up more than 3 percent from the same period of 2019, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT).

Vietnam received nearly 1.6 million foreign travelers in March, bringing the total number of international visitor arrivals to the country in the first three months of the year to more than 4.6 million, an increase of 72 percent year on year, the VNAT under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism reported.

The figure of the first quarter also recorded a 3.2 percent increase compared to the same quarter of 2019 – the pre-COVID-19 period. 

Among the total travelers, 83.6 percent arrived in Vietnam by air, 13.5 percent by road and 2.9 percent by sea. 

March is the third consecutive month that Vietnam has received more than 1.5 million foreign travelers, with Northeast Asian countries remaining the key providers of travelers to the Southeast Asian nation.

European markets have also shown positive signs in sending tourists to Vietnam, as a result of the Vietnamese government’s policy on unilateral visa exemption for entries into Vietnam with a temporary stay of up to 45 days.

South Korea topped the list of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first quarter with 1.2 million arrivals, accounting for 26.6 percent of the total, followed by China, Taiwan, the U.S., and Japan with 890,000, 300,000, 232,000 and 179,000 visits, respectively.

Notably, the arrivals of travelers from China in the January-March period have soared by as much as 534.5 percent from a year earlier, while those from South Korea and Japan correspondingly rose by 52 and 52.7 percent.

Respective growths of travelers from European countries to Vietnam have also been recorded at 29.3 percent for France, 15.8 percent for Germany, 15 percent from the UK, 7.9 percent from Russia, among others.

By continent, the number of visitors to Vietnam from Oceania in the first quarter has been equal to 120 percent of that in the same period in 2019, while the corresponding figures for Asia and America are 104 and 103 percent.

Meanwhile, Europe has nearly completely recovered from the pre-pandemic level, with a rate of 97 percent.

The first quarter also saw 30 million arrivals of domestic travelers across the country.

The total tourism revenue in the period was estimated at VND195 trillion (US$7.85 billion).

Vietnam has set a target of welcoming 18 million international visitors and 110 million domestic tourists in 2024, earning a total revenue of about VND850 trillion ($34.25 billion).

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