Vietnam Welcomes 4.5 Million Foreign Tourists in First Quarter

More than 4.5 million foreign tourists have visited Vietnam in the first three months of 2019, a good start towards the goal to receive 18 million during the year.

That figure represents a seven percent growth over the first quarter of 2018, a year in which the nation received 15.6 million foreign vacationers, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported on Tuesday.

Although China tourists fell by 5.6 percent, the Chinese market still produce the largest amount of tourists travelling to Vietnam with 1.2 million, more than one third of the total.

Despite that fall, Asia continued to be the main tourist market for Vietnam with a 7.5 percent increase. The most notable growth was Thailand (49.3 percent), Taiwan (26 percent), South Korea (24.1 percent), Malaysia (11.1 percent ) and Japan (8.3 percent).

The growth in Europe (6.1 percent) and the Americas (6.3 percent) were also encouraging.

Vietnam began 2019 with a solid tourist support that in terms of lodging, the country has more than 500,000 rooms, distributed mostly in 116 five stars hotels, 259 four star hotels and 488 three star hotels.