Vietnam tourism in peak season at the end of the year: Accelerating to attract international visitors

In 2025, Vietnam tourism aims for a very high target of welcoming 25 million international visitors. From now until the end of the year, although it is the golden time to welcome international visitors, Vietnam's tourism industry is still facing many challenges due to natural disasters and weather. Therefore, to achieve this goal, it requires great efforts from the entire industry, with timely favorable policies and breakthrough and creative solutions.

Hanoi City organizes many events and festivals in the fall to attract tourists. In the photo: Scene of the Hanoi World Cultural Festival 2025 at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel Heritage Center.

The resilience of Vietnamese tourism

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, in the first 9 months of 2025, Vietnam welcomed more than 15.4 million international visitors, an increase of 21.5% over the same period in 2024; tourism revenue in the first 9 months of 2025 is estimated at 69.6 trillion VND, an increase of 20.5% over the same period last year. Some localities are showing strong growth in attracting international visitors, typically: Ho Chi Minh City increased by 24.3%, Hanoi increased by 21.9%, Quang Ninh increased by 20.2%, Da Nang increased by 13.2%...

Assessing the strong growth in the number of international visitors to Vietnam, Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Nguyen Trung Khanh said that the strong growth of international visitors in recent times comes from the positive impacts of the visa exemption policy and the effectiveness in implementing tourism promotion and advertising programs in countries such as Russia, Japan, Italy, Korea, etc.

In addition to the steady increase in international arrivals, the tourism industry has also achieved great achievements in promotional activities in the past year. At the World Travel Awards held on October 13, Vietnam continued to win big with two important awards: “Asia’s Leading Destination” and “Asia’s Leading Heritage Destination 2025”. Localities and tourism businesses in Vietnam such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hoi An (Da Nang)… continued to be highly appreciated and honored internationally in many categories.

Despite the good growth momentum, according to tourism experts, with the big target of welcoming 25 million visitors this year, the tourism industry needs to make more efforts to attract international visitors. According to Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu Quoc Tri, with more than 3 months left in the year, Vietnam must accelerate to achieve the big goal. To welcome about 10 million visitors in the last 3 months of the year is a big challenge, especially when many localities have recently suffered heavy damage from storms and natural disasters.

Total solutions

International tourists visit the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam relic site.

Currently, the Vietnam Tourism Association has proposed important solutions to accelerate tourism at the end of the year. Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh said that the Association will focus on a number of key activities such as directly promoting "VITA Famtrip 2025" by inviting hundreds of leaders of travel agencies from key markets such as Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Northern Europe. "To increase the number of international visitors, we need to promote tourism products such as MICE tourism (tourism combined with conferences, seminars, events), golf tourism, green tourism... In addition, localities need to build and select new, unique tours and tourism services suitable for each tourist market," Mr. Vu The Binh shared.

According to records, localities are also making efforts to organize solutions to attract visitors at the end of the year. Ho Chi Minh City promotes the development of waterway tourism; Quang Ninh province organizes festivals and launches tourism stimulus packages at the end of the year; Da Nang opens more direct flights from Singapore to help attract international tourists... In Hanoi, many promotional events take place from now until the end of the year such as: Autumn Fair (from October 26 to November 4); Thang Long - Hanoi Festival lasting 16 days (from November 1 to 16)... Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports Le Thi Anh Mai shared that the Festival is not only an opportunity for Hanoi to demonstrate the spirit of integration and creativity but also to strongly promote the Vietnamese cultural brand to the world, improve the quality of destinations and attract tourists to the capital in the fall.

On October 8, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh signed Document No. 9658/VPCP-KGVX to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and ministries, branches and localities on implementing solutions to promote international tourist attraction in 2025. The Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to focus on implementing key tasks such as: Researching and developing a project to promote and advertise Vietnamese tourism and cuisine abroad for the period 2026-2030; promoting tourism programs associated with festivals, culture, and unique cuisine; innovating and improving the effectiveness of tourism promotion and advertising work...

According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong, to implement the above instructions, the Ministry has deployed many key solutions, such as coordinated efforts to propose expanding visa and immigration policies in a more open and convenient direction. Most recently, the visa exemption policy for 12 European countries under the tourism stimulus program, as well as visa exemption for famous people entering Vietnam to serve socio-economic development.

To enhance the attractiveness of destinations and the competitiveness of Vietnam tourism, Deputy Minister Ho An Phong requested businesses to join forces in building products and creating a quality tourism service value chain with reasonable prices to stimulate demand in the important period at the end of the year; step up promotion, focusing on potential markets such as Northeast Asia, ASEAN, China, Korea, etc.

New Hanoi Newspaper

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/du-lich-viet-nam-vao-mua-cao-diem-cuoi-nam-tang-toc-hut-khach-quoc-te-20251030083959992.htm