Vietnam sees record tourist arrivals in first quarter

For the first time in six years, foreign arrivals to Vietnam dropped last year by 0.2% from 2014. This drop leads to recent changes in visa policies and prices this year, which have resulted in tremendous increases in foreign arrivals. According to the General Statistics Office, there was a 20% increase from a year ago in visitors to Vietnam in the first three months of this year, with nearly 2.46 million arrivals.

Vietnam’s biggest market in these first three months was Mainland China, with 580,524 arrivals, followed by South Korea with 408,157 arrivals.  Tourists from Japan and South Korea can now stay in Vietnam for 15 days without a visa, and arrivals from Japan rose 12% in the first quarter.

Although arrivals in March had a slight decline from February, these new policies seem to be very effective and positive. The General Statistics Office also reported there has been over 109 trillion VND ($4.9 billion USD) in tourism revenue from the first three months of this year.

Vietnam aims to attract 8.5 million foreign arrivals this year and is hoping to reach 10.5 million in 2020. The country plans to achieve this by starting new promotion campaigns and issuing visa waivers to more markets.