Vietnam tourism has the basis to welcome about 13 million international visitors in 2023

International tourists experience the craft of making handmade mats. (Photo: Vietnamtravel)

At the regular press conference for the third quarter of 2023 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held on the afternoon of October 9, Mr. Pham Van Thuy, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, affirmed that Vietnam tourism has full basis to achieve this adjusted target.

Achievable goals

The goal of Vietnam's tourism industry is to welcome 8 million international visitors in 2023. According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 9 months of 2023, the number of international visitors to Vietnam exceeded the set plan by 111% with nearly 8.9 million visitors.

Mr. Pham Van Thuy said that based on the current development situation, normally, international visitors to Vietnam peak in the season from October this year to April next year, the National Tourism Administration finds it necessary to increase the target of welcoming international visitors for tourism to develop further.

A representative of the National Tourism Administration said that there are four bases for increasing the target of welcoming 12 to 13 million international visitors in 2023: The new visa exemption and e-visa policy will take effect from August 15, 2023; Vietnam's bilateral and multilateral foreign policy with the region and the world is extremely effective; The policy of reviving culture with heritages becoming unique, specialized tourism products, attracting international visitors. In addition, large markets that have opened and recovered, which are also traditional markets of Vietnam, will bring in a large source of visitors.

According to the General Statistics Office, since the beginning of the year, Vietnam tourism has welcomed 8.9 million international visitors, 4.7 times higher than the same period last year, of which September 2023 alone welcomed over 1 million international visitors, marking the third consecutive month that the country's tourism industry has welcomed over 1 million international visitors.

4 bases to increase the target of welcoming 12 to 13 million international visitors in 2023: New visa exemption and e-visa policies effective from August 15, 2023; Vietnam's bilateral and multilateral foreign policies with the region and the world are extremely effective; Cultural revival policy with heritages becoming unique, specialized tourism products, attracting international visitors; Major markets that have opened and recovered, which are also Vietnam's traditional markets, will bring in a large source of visitors.

The number of international tourists to Vietnam is mainly from the Asian market with more than 6.8 million visitors, followed by visitors from Europe with more than 1 million visitors, and the American market with 682,000 visitors.

Previously, at the Conference on reviewing the work of culture, sports and tourism in the first 9 months of the year, and orientations for the last months of 2023, held on the morning of September 29, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet announced that the Ministry will report to the Government to change the target of welcoming international visitors from 8 million to 12.5 to 13 million visitors in 2023, an increase of about 156% compared to the plan set at the beginning of the year.

Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet assessed that Vietnam's tourism exceeded the target of welcoming international visitors in just the first 9 months of 2023 due to positive changes in tourism trends in the world, as well as in the region, especially thanks to Vietnam's new, very open and transparent policies.

In particular, the removal of entry and exit bottlenecks for international visitors as well as the issuance of Resolution 82 of the Government on key tasks and solutions to accelerate recovery and accelerate effective and sustainable tourism development have created a push for tourism to have positive changes.

Thanks to those results, in the Resolution of the regular Government meeting last month, the Government directed the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review, research and adjust the target of welcoming international visitors in 2023 in accordance with the actual situation to further promote tourism recovery and development.

Implementing the Government's direction, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism together with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism have reviewed, calculated and adjusted the targets on the number of international visitors to Vietnam.

“According to calculations, in the remaining months of 2023, we can welcome at least 1.1 to 1.2 million international visitors each month. Especially in December, during Christmas and New Year. We will report to the Minister, and on that basis report to the Government to change the target of welcoming international visitors from 8 million to 12.5 to 13 million visitors in 2023, an increase of about 156% compared to the original plan,” said Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet.

As for domestic tourists, the number of visitors has reached about 93.5% of the target set for the whole year. From now until the end of the year, domestic tourism is expected to reach and exceed the target of 102 million visitors.

Also at the Conference, Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration Ha Van Sieu stated that in the first 9 months of the year, the bright spot of the tourism industry was receiving close attention and direction from the leaders of the Party and State. In addition, many important tasks of the tourism industry were completed such as the Vietnam Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2030, the Project on Some Models for Developing Night Tourism Products, Binh Thuan National Tourism Year 2023, etc.

However, Mr. Ha Van Sieu also pointed out that tourism activities have not yet fully recovered, even in major tourist centers, due to various reasons such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Chinese tourist market has not fully recovered, or the subjective reason is that tourism promotion and advertising from the central to local levels are still limited.

In addition, after Covid-19, tourists have changed their travel trends, aggregate demand has weakened, spending has decreased and activities have decreased. Therefore, the number of tourists may have increased but activities have not fully recovered.

Korean tourists on top of Fansipan (Photo: Contributor)

Synchronize solutions to attract international visitors

The Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration said that in the last 3 months of the year, the tourism industry will focus on effectively implementing Resolution 82 of the Government, delving into solutions to attract international visitors.

In addition, implementing the direction of the Ministry's leaders, the National Tourism Administration will advise on organizing a conference to meet and dialogue with tourism businesses to remove difficulties, obstacles and barriers in promoting and attracting international visitors to Vietnam, especially in major tourist centers such as Da Nang, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Ha Long, etc.

On the one hand, the National Tourism Administration has made efforts to remove difficulties for businesses, and on the other hand, it has continuously promoted and implemented a series of promotional activities abroad. At the same time, the Administration will strengthen inspection and examination as well as promote destination management, overcome difficulties and weaknesses of destinations to improve quality and attract visitors.

To attract more international tourists to Vietnam and contribute to the completion of the new set goals, the Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration said that in the last months of the year, the tourism industry will further promote promotional activities, especially in target markets.

In particular, for the Western European tourist market, the national tourism agency and tourism businesses are actively preparing for the World Travel Market (WTM) to take place in London (UK) in November this year. In addition, the tourism industry will also focus on the Chinese and ASEAN markets with the China-ASEAN Travel Market to take place in Guilin (China) in October. Other markets such as the US, Australia or India are also very vibrant and promising markets in the last months of the year.

Regarding the development of tourism types and products, the Government has a project to develop the night economy and the tourism industry has also issued a project to develop night tourism products. In the project to develop night tourism products, the tourism industry has selected 12 localities to plan and develop zones, subdivisions, and functions to develop night tourism products. The project also creates a legal framework for the development of night tourism products by allowing services to operate from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning.

In addition, golf tourism and MICE tourism are also types of tourism that Vietnam has many strengths in and can invest in and develop in the coming time to attract more international tourists.

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