Vietnam’s foreign tourist numbers rise for first time after 13 months

The Vietnamese tourist industry has finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel in its bid to win back international tourists, with foreign arrival numbers in July increasing for the first time in a 13-month stretch.

Vietnam’s international tourist numbers reached 593,600 in July, up 12.1 percent compared to June, and 5.1 percent from the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the General Statistics Office.

The Southeast Asian country had suffered drops in international arrival numbers for 13 straight months since May 2014.

But Vietnam cannot celebrate, as the seven-month figures are still lower than they were a year ago.

In the first seven months of this year, 4.39 million international visitors came to Vietnam, a 9.4 percent decline from the Jan-July period in 2014.

Vietnam received far fewer tourists from several Asian markets in the seven-month period, while enjoying a surge from some European markets, apparently because of the visa-free policy that took effect on July 1.

Tourist arrivals from Cambodia in the Jan-July period dropped 43.9 percent year on year, whereas the respective declines from Laos, Thailand and China were 36.1 percent, 31.2 percent, and 24.4 percent.

The number of South Korean holidaymakers visiting Vietnam in the first seven months rose 35.5 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest rise, followed by Finland with 15.8 percent, and Singapore 13.4 percent.

Tourists from Spain, Italy and Germany increased 6.4 percent, 5.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. The other two West European countries which Vietnam has also scrapped visas for are the UK and France.

Waiving visas is among many measures Vietnam has put in place in an effort to lure international visitors, at a time when its tourist industry is hamstrung by complaints over costly visa fees, rip-offs, pollution and poor services.

Besides the five European countries, Vietnam currently applies a one-sided free-visa policy to eight countries, including Japan, South Korea, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Belarus.

It also has a visa-free policy for nine other Southeast Asian countries, including Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.

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Vietnam’s foreign tourist numbers rise for first time after 13 months

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