(TITC) - In the first quarter of 2017, the tourism sector received over 3.2 million int’l arrivals, increasing 29% over the same period last year; serving 22.2 million domestic trippers; reaching VND131,900 billion of tourism receipt.
Of the total, China continued to be the leading tourist market of Viet Nam with 949,199 arrivals, rising 63.5% over the same period last year.
The following markets were Republic of Korea with 527,464 arrivals (+29.2%); Japan: 201,590 arrivals (+4.8%); USA: 179,661 arrivals (9.1%); Russia: 175,456 arrivals (+61.3%); Chinese Taipei: 150,142 arrivals (+22.4%), etc.
Notably, according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 Edition by the World Economic Forum, Viet Nam ranked the 67th out of 136 countries. Of which, the main drivers of Viet Nam’s T&T competitiveness are its cultural resources and business travel (30th), natural resources (34th), price competitiveness (35th), human resources and labor market (37th), safety and security (57th).
In the first quarter of 2017, Viet Nam organized a series of promotion activities in the country and oversea such as the Opening ceremony of National Tourism Year 2017 in Lao Cai Province; Roadshows introducing Viet Nam’s tourism at international tourism fairs of TRAVEX (Singapore), ITB Berlin (German), MITT (Russia), etc.
In the coming time, tourism sector will continue to build action plan for developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector of Viet Nam and submit the draft of Tourism Law (Amendment) to National Assembly.
Thanh Tam