Vietnam has seen a significant increase in international tourist numbers...
Vietnam has seen a significant increase in international tourist numbers despite a drop in the January-May period.
There were over 3.54 million international tourist arrivals in the first 6 months of 2013, up from the same period last year.
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The mainstay of the tourism industry was those on holiday, 2,169,400 arrivals occupying 61.3% of the total figure, achieving the highest growth rate (4.9%), followed by those on business 592,500 arrivals, up 1.8%.
Those traveling to Vietnam to see their relatives numbered 590,000, occupying 16.7%; for other purposes, 188.500, down 8.4%.
The figures have encouraged the view that the FDI, ODA, FII investment may be recovering.
Vietnam saw their tourism numbers jump, Russia up 57.8%, Thailand up 24.3%, Indonesia up 21.5%, China up 21%, Malaysia up 12.2%, Australia up 7.3%, and South Korea up 4.3%.
Most tourists arrived in Vietnam by air (80.7%), up 0.8%, by road (15.9%), up 12.5%; by sea (3.4%), up 2.7%.
Visitors spent USD 661.4 in 2005, USD 913 in 2011 and USD 1002.5 on average during their one-day stay in 2012 .
The spending was on hotel rooms 26.7%, food 20.2%, traveling 17.6%, commodities 14.7%, sightseeing 7.5% and health care 1%. The spending on souvenirs was low.
Statistics show that the average spending of visitors from 14 countries and territories during their 1 day-stay in Vietnam is higher than the average level.
High-spending tourists are from Japan (USD167.8), followed by Indonesia (USD160.2), Malaysia (USD142.2), Singapore (USD140.2), South Korea (USD131.6), Thailand (USD130), Sweden (USD123.6), the Philippines (USD116.9), etc.
The total spending of international tourists was USD 2,300 million in 2005, USD 4,450 million in 2010, USD 5,710 million in 2011 and USD 6,830 million in 2012.
Average tourist stay jumps to 9 days. Experts estimate about one fifth of tourists return to Vietnam for the second time.
Tourism, known as a non-smoke industry, has created abundant employment opportunities for local residents. More importantly, this is a good result of the local innovation and open-door policies for continued integration into the world economy.
N.T
