Tourist numbers up substantially in Vietnam

Vietnam’s tourism bucked the trend in June when it attracted 376,000 foreign visitors, up 34.6 percent from a year ago.
The period between April and August is the low season for tourism in Vietnam and thus it’s unusual for arrivals to surge sharply in June.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, foreign arrivals to the country in June also rose 7 percent from May. Arrivals in the first six months reached 2.51 million, up 32.6 percent from the same period last year.
China was the top market with 437,000 million arrivals to Vietnam in January-June, a sharp increase of 92.5 percent.
Vo Anh Tai, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based leading tour operator Saigontourist, said the prospects for the second half are also positive but the tourism industry will not be able to recover to pre-crisis level yet.
Key markets including the US and Europe have not fully recovered from the financial crisis last year, he said.
Vietnam’s tourism industry expects to receive 4.5-4.6 million foreign visitors this year, compared to 3.8 million in 2009.