Vietnam has gained the first position among the world’s top 10 travel destinations for families.
Intrepid Travel, the global leader in delivering sustainable experience-rich travel announced a list of the world’s top 10 travel destinations for families.
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Pho, one of the best traditional dish in Vietnam.
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Vietnam tops the list, followed by Thailand, Malaysia, India, Morocco and Italy. Vietnam is the place to be for foodie families, according to Dyan McKie, Intrepid’s family travel expert.
“Vietnam is a stand out for foodies within the family regardless of age,” he says. “Freshness is key to Vietnamese food and you can pick up cheap eats from street vendors like banh mi or pho.”
Vietnam, which was named among world’s 20 fastest growing travel destinations in 2016, has overtaken its neighbor Thailand for the first time. Thailand came in 9th, three places behind Vietnam.
Earlier, Vietnam has ranked 7th on a list of the world’s top 20 fastest-growing travel destinations, announced recently by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The list is based on an assessment of increases in tourist arrivals.
Among Asian countries on the list, Vietnam’s 7th place was the third highest, behind Nepal (second, with arrivals up 39.7%) and South Korea (fourth, with arrivals up 30.3%).
Vietnam already offers visa exemptions for tourists from South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries, and has extended of visa waiver for a three-year period for the citizens of five Western European countries, namely the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Citizens from the five aforementioned countries will continue to enjoy visa exemptions to enter Vietnam up to 2020 after the expiration of the visa-free policy this June.
The open-door visa policy aligned with enhanced tourism promotion has contributed to maintaining Vietnam's growth rate of foreign visitors at nearly 30% annually, according to Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung.
Vietnam received a total of more than 6.7 million foreign tourists in the first five months of 2018, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The country is striving to welcome 17 - 20 million foreign visitors and make US$35 billion per year from tourism by 2020, contributing 10% to the country’s economy, compared to the current 7.5%.
Ha Phuong