Bustling from charter to cruise ship passengers
According to information from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), last October, Vietnam welcomed 1.11 million international visitors, marking the fourth consecutive month that the tourism industry welcomed more than 1 million international visitors. In the first 10 months of 2023, the total number of international visitors to our country reached nearly 10 million.
Nha Trang is strongly attracting foreign tourists to the coastal city.
In terms of market size, South Korea continued to be the largest market sending visitors in the past 10 months with 2.9 million arrivals; China ranked second. These two markets account for 42% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam. Next, the US ranked third; Taiwan (China) ranked fourth; Japan ranked fifth. For the ASEAN market, the top 3 sources of visitors are Thailand (392,000 arrivals); Malaysia (372,000 arrivals); Cambodia (326,000 arrivals). The Australian and Indian markets both reached 314,000 arrivals. In Europe, the 3 largest markets sending visitors to Vietnam are the UK, France and Germany, respectively. The Russian market reached 98,000 arrivals.
Across the country, many tourist capitals are also bustling to welcome an increasing number of tourists. The most bustling is Nha Trang ( Khanh Hoa ) when in October, the number of international visitors is estimated to reach 220,000 (6 times higher than the same period last year). It is estimated that from the beginning of the year to the end of October, Khanh Hoa province has welcomed more than 6.2 million overnight tourists, helping the tourism industry "pocket" nearly 30,000 billion VND.
In just one month, Khanh Hoa tourism industry has welcomed 5 foreign business delegations to survey tourism (Korea, India, Australia, Malaysia, France). Korea continues to be the leading international market of the coastal city with 15 flights/day. In addition, Chinese tourists have also been bustling back to Nha Trang. Travel companies specializing in exploiting the Chinese tourist market have coordinated with airlines to organize charter flights from many major cities in China to Khanh Hoa. In particular, China Southern Airlines has resumed flights from Guangzhou to Khanh Hoa from September 29 with a frequency of 3 round trips/week and converted to daily flights from October 20 with a frequency of about 10 flights/day.
Similarly, in the last week of October alone, Phu Quoc (Kien Giang) welcomed more than 1,000 international visitors on charter flights after international flights to Phu Quoc were reconnected. Most recently, on October 27, flight A350-900 with the code 2W8623 continued to bring 430 Czech tourists to land at Phu Quoc airport. This is the first time Phu Quoc has welcomed a charter flight from the capital city of Prague (Czech Republic). It is expected that from now until April 2024, this route will continue to bring international visitors to the pearl island with a frequency of 1 flight/week.
Localities welcomed the good news, and tourism businesses were equally excited. Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that from October, Vietnam began to enter the peak season for international visitors at the end of the year. In line with the general growth of the market, groups of tourists booked under Saigontourist Travel's program have begun to arrive in Vietnam with a fairly large number of guests each group, mainly from the markets of France, Germany, Austria, etc. Although it has only ended the first month of the quarter, the number of inbound guests in the fourth quarter of Saigontourist Travel recorded a 15% growth compared to the entire fourth quarter of 2022. In particular, cruise passengers are showing signs of strong recovery. In the last 2 months of the year, Saigontourist Travel will welcome 8 cruise ships, expected to bring about 12,000 luxury guests to Vietnam.
In fact, since the beginning of 2023, Vietnam has welcomed many international ships to visit and experience. Many major cruise lines in the world such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Resort World Cruises... have promoted tourism routes to the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, Vietnam is considered an attractive market when welcoming many high-class international ships with thousands of passengers per trip.
Most recently, the Spectrum of the Seas ship of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines with more than 4,000 international guests docked at Phu My port (Ba Ria-Vung Tau). In the last months of 2023, this cruise line will also continue to bring thousands of international tourists to Vietnam.
Bright spot in economic growth
With the current good growth momentum, Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen predicts that Vietnam will definitely "pocket" 12 million international visitors this year. This is a very good motivation for the tourism industry to quickly accelerate and achieve recovery to the pre-pandemic 2019 level as soon as possible, right in 2024.
"Management agencies need to carefully survey the markets, assess which markets are the main markets, structure, and calculate orientations to set goals to create momentum for the following year. On that basis, build appropriate and timely policies. In particular, there are solutions to improve the visa approval infrastructure system to facilitate more large cruise ship groups and MICE guests to come to Vietnam," Mr. Y Yen commented.
In the general economic difficulties, the service and tourism sectors are considered a bright spot, making an important contribution to the country's economic growth. According to the 9-month socio-economic report of the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Planning and Investment), the service and tourism sector grew by 6.24%, contributing 53.34% to the overall GDP growth of the economy. The General Statistics Office assessed that the trade and tourism sectors maintained high growth momentum, contributing positively to the growth of the service sector. Some sectors contributed significantly to the growth of the economy, including accommodation and catering services, which grew by 13.17%, contributing 0.33 percentage points.
HSBC economists also believe that the service sector will be a solid foundation to partially offset the difficulties in trade at the end of the year. In particular, tourism-related service sectors, including transportation, accommodation and catering, will maintain strong growth momentum.
Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh said that with the efforts of the entire industry to overcome difficulties, in the past time implementing activities to develop products, improve service quality, promote advertising..., the total number of international visitors to Vietnam has far exceeded the plan set at the beginning of the year. Based on the actual situation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has recently adjusted the target of welcoming international visitors in 2023 from 8 million to about 12 - 13 million, in order to create new momentum to contribute to accelerating recovery and accelerating the development of the tourism industry effectively and sustainably. Previously, Mr. Khanh also assessed that it is completely feasible for the Vietnamese tourism industry to welcome about 4 million more international visitors in the last 3 months of the year.
"In the coming time, the tourism industry, together with the coordination of localities and the business community, needs to accelerate and take drastic actions to create a breakthrough in tourism development, contributing to the overall growth of the country's economy. In the third quarter, the tourism industry welcomed an average of more than 1 million international visitors per month. Thus, in the remaining months of 2023, we can welcome at least 1.1 - 1.2 million international visitors per month, especially in December, during Christmas and New Year 2024," Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh analyzed.
In October, most major markets grew. Major markets in Europe continued to achieve good growth compared to September 2023. Some other small-scale markets but with quite high growth rates such as Denmark (up 61.7%), Switzerland (up 54.1%), Finland (up 42.8%), Sweden (up 30.3%)...
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