Of the total, the international visitors travelling by air reached 5,211,965 arrivals (+33.0%); by sea: 170,843 arrivals (+26.0%); by road: 823,528 arrivals (+15.8%).

Almost tourist markets saw positive growth in this period. In particular, Northeast Asia continued to be the biggest market of Viet Nam tourism, accounting for 58.5% of the total, including China (1,887,495 arrivals; up 56.7%), Republic of Korea (1,066,257 arrivals, up 43.9%), Japan (378,844 arrivals, up 6.5%), Taiwan (297,852 arrivals, up 22.9%), followed by Southeast Asian market accounting for 12.9%; European market: 15.8%; American market: 7%.

According to Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the tourism industry also served 40.7 million domestic trippers, the total receipts reached VND 254,700 billion in the first half of the year.

Addressing at the media conference on July 4, VNAT’s Chairman Nguyen Van Tuan stressed that Viet Nam Tourism recorded a positive results in the first 6 months thanks to the efforts of tourism industry and the guidance of the Party and State. 

Early this year, the Politburo issued Resolution 08-NQ/TW on developing tourism into a spearhead economy sector. In June, the National Assembly approved the revised Law on Tourism, aiming to facilitate tourism development. Also, in the framework of APEC Viet Nam 2017, Viet Nam organized successfully the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Tourism in Ha Long City which contributes to promote regional sustainable tourism development. 

Besides, the Government approved e-visa pilot for foreigners entering Viet Nam and extended the validity of visa exemption for citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy which facilitate travelling for visitors to Viet Nam.

During the period, Viet Nam Tourism also attended international tourism fairs of TRAVEX (Singapore), ITB Berlin (Germany), MITT (Moscow, Russia), TTM Plus (Thailand), KOTFA (Republic of Korea) and hosted VITM Ha Noi 2017, etc.

Thanh Tam