Overview of international visitors to Vietnam on the first half of year 2023

Update: 30/06/2023
(TITC) – After the first half of 2023, Vietnam welcomed nearly 5.6 million international visitor arrivals, reaching 69% of the 2023 plan, recovering 66% of the same period of 2019.

International visitors at Nha Trang City. Photo: Khanh Hoa News

According to General Statistic Office, there are 975 thousand international visitor arrivals to Vietnam in June, up 6.4% to May. In the first two quarters of the year, nearly 5.6 million international arrivals to Vietnam, reached 66% of 2019 level.

Figure 1. International visitors by month 2023 (thousand arrivals)

Source: Complied from GSO

Korea continues to be the largest source market in the first 6 months of 2023 with 1.6 million arrivals. Following is China (the 2nd), reaching 557 thousand arrivals. The US ranked third (374 thousand arrivals).

In Vietnam tourism’s top ten source markets, Northeast Asia has Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan. Southeast Asia has Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. Australia ranked at the 9th, India ranked the 10th.

In Europe, the UK (129.5 thousand arrivals), France (106.4) and Germany (99.2) are the largest source markets. In addition, the Russian reached 62 thousand arrivals in the first 6 months of the year.

Figure 2. Top 10 source markets of Vietnam in Jan-May 2023 (thousand arrivals)

Source: Complied from GSO

In June 2023, the US had the best growth, reaching 66,000 arrivals, up 52% compared to May 2023.

Two big markets of China (+7.8%) and South Korea (+15%) continued to grow. Besides, India increased by 37.8%, Singapore by 48%, Taiwan by 21%, the Philippines by 10%.

There are some markets that have decreased compared to May 2023, including Thailand (-19.7%), Indonesia (-25.4%), Japan (-15.6%), France (-41%), Germany (-20.3%), UK (-15.6%) and Australia (-20.6%).

Figure 3. Recovery of some international tourist markets in the first 6 months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019

Source: Complied from GSO

Regarding the recovery level, notably, there are 5 markets in the first 6 months of 2023 that have exceeded the same period of 2019 including: Cambodia (338%), India (236%), Laos (117%), Thailand (108.4%), and Singapore (107.4%).

There are two markets that have nearly recovered to 2019 levels including the US (95%) and Australia (92%). In addition, South Korea (77%), UK (78.5%), Germany (83.7%), France (68.6%) all achieved a good recovery.

However, the Chinese market only recovered 22.4% due to the reopening of group tours to Vietnam just from March 15, 2023.

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