The number of international visitors arriving in Vietnam during the first four months of this year dropped by 12.2 percent from the same period last year to 2.69 million.
Tourists ride bicycles in Hanoi
This was derived from data furnished by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
Visitors arriving by air, made up for 83 percent of the total international arrivals, and fell by 9 percent over the same period last year, while arrivals by train and road dropped by a hefty 30 and 25 percent, respectively.
In April alone, Vietnam received more than 690 international visitors, rising by 11.7 percent from the previous month, but dropped by 7.4 percent over the same month last year.
The number of visitors from Asia to Vietnam during the four-month period fell by 12.9 percent from a year ago to 1.73 million, with a considerable decline in the number of visitors from China (down 33.2 percent), Cambodia (down 28.1 percent), Thailand (down 23.7 percent), Laos (down 35.5 percent) and Indonesia (down 21.6 percent).
The number of visitors from Europe also slipped 8.4 percent, especially from Russia, which dropped by 19.9 percent.
However, during this period, Vietnam saw a surge in the number of visitors from South Korea by 33.4 percent and Finland, which jumped 27 percent. Modest increases were also seen in several markets, including Spain, Singapore, Italy, the United States and Germany.
China and Korea were two markets, which had the highest number of visitors coming to Vietnam, with more than 187,000 and 85,200 during the first four months, respectively, data showed.
The number of international visitors coming to Vietnam had started falling at the beginning of this year after reaching a peak of 7.87 million in 2014, forcing the tourism sector to introduce measures to renovate and attract more tourists.
Experts said although the number of international visitors had dropped partly due to the impact of the global economic recession and the slump in several currencies, making trips more expensive, Vietnam needed to improve its tourism and hospitality services and renovate tourism products.
According to the Deputy Ch airman of the Vietnam Tourism Association (VAT), Vu The Binh, the tourism industry of Vietnam lacked innovation, which hardly compelled tourists to return.
Tourism promotional activities also remained weak, Nguyen Cong Hoan, the deputy director of Hanoi Red Tours, said. The expense budget allocated to tourism promotion in Vietnam was only VND30 to 40 billion (US$1.38-$1.85 million) a year, which was modest in comparison with the millions of dollars spent by Thailand or Malaysia.
In addition, there was a lack of co-ordination among promotional activities at the country and local levels and among localities.
Hoan said Vietnam needed to formulate a long-term promotional strategy for the tourism industry to attract more international tourists, together with preparations in infrastructure, such as hotels and restaurants, along with enhanced service quality.
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