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| Tourists visit Trang An Landscape Complex in Ninh Binh province |
The article wrote that Southeast Asia saw a 9.4 percent rise in tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2018 – the largest number recorded amongst all regions at the time. This figure exceeded the already robust 6 percent average growth for global tourism during the same period.
Within the Southeast Asian region, Thailand recorded the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2017 at 35 million, and ranked fourth highest among global earners from tourism in the year with 81 billion USD, it wrote.
However, it said that “an emerging regional star in the tourism sector is Vietnam,” as in 2017, Vietnam recorded the largest increase in tourist arrivals for the region, with each tourist spending an average of 685 USD. The country is expected to record an even bigger rise in 2018 as it posted a year-on-year 25.2 percent growth in the first quarter of the year.
Vietnam’s tourism growth is the result of a concerted effort by its government in nurturing an attractive tourism sector, as well as understanding and solving the challenges faced, the article stressed.
Vietnam has been focused and determined in promoting its trade and culture to other markets. In 2017, a lot of tourism promotion programmes were carried out in both scope and scale.
Moreover, the country has identified barriers to incoming tourists that need to be solved to improve its attractiveness to foreign visitors.
Affordable air travel is making far-flung places more accessible, while shifts in life priorities amongst millennials who choose to travel more compared to making other major purchases continues to push growth in the sector.
Vietnam and Southeast Asia in general need to take advantage of this growth and position themselves as some of the best destinations for international tourism, the article suggested.
