Vietnam tourism welcomes nearly 9 million international visitor arrivals, markets signal positively

According to data from the General Statistics Office, in the first 9 months of 2023, the total number of international visitors to Vietnam reached about 8.9 million arrivals, an increase of 4.7 times compared to the same period in 2022. In particular, September 2023 alone welcomed over 1 million international visitor arrivals, marking the 3rd consecutive month that Vietnam Tourism welcomed over 1 million international visitor arrivals.

In terms of market size, Korea continued to be the largest tourist source market in the first 9 months of 2023 with nearly 2.6 million arrivals (accounting for 29% of the total number of visitor arrivals). The Chinese market surpassed the mark of 1 million, ranking the 2nd. Taiwan surpassed the US to take the 3rd place with 575 thousand visitor arrivals. America ranked the 4th with 548 thousand visitor arrivals. Japan ranked the 5th with 414 thousand visitor arrivals.

In the top 10 markets, there are also 3 markets in Southeast Asia: Thailand (351 thousand arrivals); Malaysia (333 thousand arrivals); and Cambodia (289 thousand arrivals). Australia ranked the 9th (283 thousand arrivals); India ranked 10th (278 thousand arrivals).

From Europe, the 3 largest source markets to Vietnam include: England (187 thousand arrivals), France (155 thousand arrivals), and Germany (142 thousand arrivals). Next is the Russian market with 88 thousand arrivals.

Regarding the level of recovery compared to the same period of 2019 (time before the pandemic), a number of major markets signal a good level of recovery: America (96.4%), Korea (82.3%), Taiwan (85.3%).

Southeast Asian markets recovered positively: Malaysia (76.9%), Philippines (84%). In particular, numbers of arrivals from some markets have been even higher than at the same period before the pandemic: Thailand (101.7%); Singapore (106.5%); Cambodia (267.1%). From South Asia, the Indian market also had an impressive recovery (240%).

Optimistic signals also come from European main markets: Germany recovered best with 87.1%; Spain reached 82.4%; England reached 78.9%; Slightly lower were Italy (76.7%); France (71.9%).

Top 10 source markets to Vietnam in Jan-Sep 2023
(thousand arrivals)

However, China traditional source market only reached a recovery rate of 28.2%. At the time before the pandemic, the Chinese market accounted for nearly 1/3 of the total number of international visitor arrivals to Vietnam. During the period 2015-2019, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam increased 3.3 times from 1.78 million to 5.8 million arrivals.

With the tourism industry entering the peak international tourism season in the last months of the year and seizing the opportunity from the new visa exemption and electronic visa policies effective from 15th August 2023, it is expected that the number of international visitors to Vietnam will continue to increase rapidly in the near future.

* Tourism Information Technology Center
* Tags: international tourists, visitors, market, Vietnam tourism, statistics, recovery, monthly tourism statistics,