Women in ao dai cycling inside the Thang Long Imperial Citadel complex in Hanoi. — Vietnam News/ANN
HANOI: Vietnam's total revenue from tourism activities is estimated at 582.6 trillion dong (RM112.7bil) in the first 10 months of 2023, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism.
This represents an increase of 24.7% in revenues compared to the first ten months of 2022. Vietnam started to completely resume outbound/inbound tourism from March 15, 2022 after years of stringent border lockdown due to Covid-19.
In the ten month period this year, the country welcomed 10 million foreign tourists, exceeding the target of 8 million for the whole year, and served 98.7 million domestic holiday-makers. In October alone, the tourism sector served 1.11 million foreign visitors (for the fourth consecutive month) and 5.2 million domestic tourists.
According to the nine-month socio-economic report released by the General Statistics Office, the service and tourism sector grew by 6.24%, contributing 53.34% of the total overall growth of the country's GDP.
In November, localities across the nation have plans to organise various events and festivals to attract more tourists, including Hanoi Tourist Gift Festival, Ninh Thuan Tourism and Culture Day in Can Tho City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Tourism Week, and Mang Den Culture Festival in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.
Travel companies in Vietnam are preparing to anticipate opportunities of the peak season of both inbound and outbound tours.
At present, South Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan are widely sought after by tourists thanks to good tour prices. A representative of Saigontourist – one of Vietnam's largest travel companies, said that tours with new destinations or offering new experiences are attracting tourists, many of whom are willing to spend large amounts of money to enjoy new experiences.
Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, a representative of Vietravel, another major Vietnamese travel firm, stated that with some tours that draw attention by a large number of Vietnamese tourists, such as those to China, the company always proactively links and cooperates with tourism promotion agencies, and localities to step up promotion activities and introduce tours at good prices so as to bring many impressive experiences to customers.
Online travel platform Agoda on Oct 24 for the first time announced Vietnam's New Horizons - a list of new emerging destinations in the country that few tourists have known.
The list is made based on the results of comparing search data for the same period in 2022 and 2023 about emerging destinations, increasing interest from both domestic and foreign tourists.
On the top of the list is Tam Đao resort in the northern mountainous of Vinh Phuc with search traffic increasing by 279% over the same period last year.
Other destinations are Bac Ninh - a spiritual city with rich traditions in the northern region with a 234% increase in search volume; Sam Son coastal city in the central province of Thanh Hoa, 228%; and Phu Quy - a small island off the coast of Binh Thuan province. The coastal city of Quy Nhon with its romantic beaches and unique cuisine is also included in the list.
Vu Ngoc Lam, Director of Agoda in Vietnam, said that in addition to the most popular and famous destinations in Vietnam which many tourists visit regularly, Agoda found that some places with fewer visitors had a clear increase in searches.
He said Vietnam has many interesting things to explore, in which second- and third-class destinations are increasingly sought after.
VNAT and travel platform Traveloka have also freshly inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance their public-private partnership in promoting the sustainable growth of the industry in Vietnam, marking their first step towards improving tourism experiences and promoting local destinations to domestic and foreign tourists.
VNAT Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu stressed that the Vietnamese government pays significant attention to the management and development of tourist destinations, aiming at a healthy tourism environment and better branding and competitiveness.
Co-founder of Traveloka Albert said Vietnam has tremendous growth potential for the industry and stands out as a leading country in South-East Asia in terms of digital advancement. Through providing comprehensive features on the travel platform, Traveloka aims to facilitate the digitisation of the local tourism processes.
The collaboration between both sides will serve the growing travel demand at Việt Nam’s popular tourist destinations, contributing to the sustainable development of local partners and businesses, he noted. — Vietnam News/ANN
