The Vietnamese tourism sector will embark on the tourism recovery and development scheme under the 2022-2023 socio-economic development programme next year.
Russian tourists holding vaccine passports arrive in Khanh Hoa province (Photo: VNA)
It will also strive to complete the 2021-2030 tourism system planning with a vision to 2045 and submit it to the Government for approval, develop smart tourism via digital transformation toward the goal of serving 65 million visitors, including 5 million foreigners, and earning 400 trillion VND (17.39 billion USD) in revenue .
Data from the General Statistics Office as of December 29 showed that foreign arrivals in the country rose by 14.2 percent month-on-month in December as Vietnam has been piloting the serving of foreigners since November and international commercial flights have been restored.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam slumped by 95.9 percent annually to 157,300, most of them were experts and technical workers working for projects in Vietnam. Almost all tour guides became unemployed while the capacity of lodging facilities only reached about 5-10 percent this year.
In face of such, the sector worked closely with ministries, agencies and localities to fulfill the dual goals of fighting the pandemic and restoring tourism in the new situation. As a result, tourism activities in several localities, including Hanoi, Da Nang, Lam Dong, Quang Ninh, Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa, have begun to revive.
In November, the first foreign tourists arrived in Quang Nam, Phu Quoc and Khanh Hoa under a pilot programme to welcome them back after a long hiatus.
By late December, the country was expected to host 3,000 – 3,500 foreign visitors. A month later, more foreigners from the Republic of Korea, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand and India will come.
In 2021, Vietnam was honoured as the “Leading destination in Asia”, the “Leading sustainable tourism destination in Asia”, the “Best golf destination in Asia and the world”, and the “Best yachting destination in Asia”. Its hotels, resorts, destinations, restaurants, tour agencies and airlines also won a number of awards.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism also earned the title of Asia's Leading Tourist Board 2021 by the World Travel Awards.
