National Tourism Conference 2025: Vietnam tourism strives to achieve the target of 25 million international visitors

On September 5, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized the National Tourism Conference 2025 with the theme "Synergy - Selecting a destination - Acceleration". Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong, Director Nguyen Trung Khanh and leaders of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration chaired the Conference.

The conference was held to propose solutions on tourism promotion markets, products, tourist destinations, provincial-city linkages, tourism stimulus packages, aviation, cruise, tourism transport connections, etc. to effectively implement the theme "Synergy - Selecting locations - Accelerating", thereby increasing the attractiveness and competitiveness of Vietnam's tourist destinations, attracting international tourists to Vietnam, especially in the last months of the year, towards the goal of welcoming 25 million international tourists in 2025.

The conference was held directly in conjunction with the activities of the Ho Chi Minh City International Tourism Fair - ITE HCMC 2025. Nearly 300 delegates also attended the conference, including: leaders of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and its affiliated units, leaders of the Department of Tourism, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of 34 provinces and cities, tourism promotion centers, tourism associations, international travel businesses, tourism service providers, etc.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho An Phong speaks at the Conference (photo: My Phuong/VNA)

Speaking at the Conference, Deputy Minister Ho An Phong highly appreciated the preparation and organization of the National Tourism Conference 2025, which attracted the participation of more than 260 international travel agencies and representatives of agencies and units. In particular, it took place in the context of the country's great changes, many important events such as the 80th anniversary of National Day September 2, 1945 - September 2, 2025, the anniversary of the strong growth of the tourism industry, the implementation of Resolution 68 of the Politburo on the development of Vietnam's private economy, including travel businesses, especially international travel businesses...

"Resolution No. 226/NQ-CP dated August 5, 2025 of the Government assigns the task to the tourism industry to welcome 25 million international visitors by 2025, this is a very large number, requiring the entire industry to strive to achieve. Therefore, today's Conference is extremely important," Deputy Minister Ho An Phong emphasized, at the same time suggesting that the Conference gather tourism forces, promote and link tourism, discuss in depth, propose solutions, especially solutions on key markets, link types, to welcome more international visitors, so that tourism revenue and efficiency from tourism activities do not stop at quantity but also tourism quality, diversify tourism products, link tourism to make Vietnamese tourism more and more attractive.

The Deputy Minister said, "Today's conference has the presence of more than 260 businesses/more than 4,000 international travel businesses, which is an opportunity to filter opinions and contribute many ideas. The conference also needs to be innovated to listen more, discuss more, and find ways for the community to be responsible for each other in attracting tourists."

• Resolutely, synchronously and effectively deploy solutions for tourism development

• Visa exemption under the Tourism Development Stimulus Program for citizens of 12 countries

The Deputy Minister also suggested that the Conference focus on three main contents, including assessing the situation of international tourists coming to Vietnam and the issues raised in the past time to attract tourists to achieve the target of 25 million tourists by 2025. Discuss in groups on the topic of tourist markets: Northeast Asia - Southeast Asia (the most crowded market of international tourists to Vietnam); Europe - North America - Australia; India - Middle East.

The discussion focused on 5 groups of solutions: the ability to increase visitors in market segments, advantages, difficulties and requirements to accelerate the increase in the number of visitors; solutions to increase visitors and improve the efficiency of welcoming visitors for each market segment in terms of policy mechanisms, promotion, products, tourist destinations, linking to form tourism stimulus packages, connecting aviation, ships, tourism transportation, applying technology in travel businesses to promote product sales on digital platforms, meeting the needs of the tourism market in the current context.

After the group discussion session is the plenary session, the groups present the results of the discussion, exchange and agree on the system of solutions "Synergy - Selecting points - Acceleration" to attract international visitors to Vietnam.

After a period of discussion, the Conference received more than 30 opinions, solutions and proposals. From these opinions, the Conference plans to propose specific action solutions on markets, products, promotion and linking travel agencies with markets and suppliers to increase the competitiveness of Vietnam tourism, create a breakthrough in attracting international visitors, contributing to the successful implementation of the target of 25 million international visitors by 2025.

Deputy Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu informed at the Conference

Reporting at the Conference, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu informed about a number of tourism recovery and development indicators, notably, in July 2025, the number of international visitors to Vietnam reached 1.56 million, an increase of 35.7% over the same period last year. In the first 7 months of 2025, the total number of international visitors reached 12.23 million, an increase of 22.5% over the same period in 2024.

Although it is the low season for international tourism, the number of arrivals in July has started to increase compared to June (+6.8%), in which the European markets in particular increased by 38%. This is a very positive signal showing the effectiveness of the open visa policy and a series of promotional activities of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in recent times in 6 European countries (France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany).

China continues to be the largest tourist market of Vietnam with 3.1 million arrivals (accounting for 25.5%). South Korea ranked second, reaching 2.5 million arrivals (accounting for 20.7%). The following markets include Taiwan (China) (ranked 3rd with 737 thousand arrivals), the US (ranked 4th with 522 thousand arrivals), Japan (ranked 5th with 449 thousand arrivals). In the 10 largest markets of Vietnam tourism, there are also Cambodia (401 thousand arrivals), India (387 thousand arrivals), Australia (324 thousand arrivals), Russia (315 thousand arrivals), Malaysia (304 thousand arrivals). Russia continues to be the largest market in the European region and ranked 9th in the top 10 leading tourist markets.

Most markets recorded growth, with Asia increasing by 22.4%, driven by major markets in Northeast Asia: China (+45.7%), Japan (+18.2%), Taiwan (+0.6%). However, the major market of Korea decreased slightly by 2.5%. Nearby markets in Southeast Asia also grew positively: Philippines (+99.1%), Cambodia (+54.4%), Indonesia (+12.2%), Malaysia and Singapore (+8.1%), Thailand (7.1%). Two potential markets, Australia and India, continued to grow well, reaching 15.1% and 42.5%. European markets continued to grow well, including key markets such as Russia (+156.6%), UK (+22.2%), France (+23.1%), Germany (+17.2%), Besides that, Italy (+25.9%), Spain (+14.9%), Sweden (+16.5%), Denmark (+14.1%), Belgium (+18.0%), Norway (+21.1%)... The number of visitors from Poland and Switzerland increased by 44.8% and 15.8% respectively compared to the same period in 2024 thanks to the short-term visa exemption policy under the 2025 tourism development stimulus program issued by the Government in Resolution 11/NQ-CP.

Total revenue from tourists in 7 months is estimated at 616 trillion VND. As of July 2025, the country has 4,361 international travel businesses, including 1,330 joint stock companies, 3,025 limited liability companies, 06 private enterprises and 2,115 domestic travel businesses. As of July 2025, the country has 280 5-star accommodation establishments with 92,768 rooms; 340 4-star accommodation establishments with 46,812 rooms.

Tourists learn about tourism information at ITE HCMC 2025 Fair

As of July 2025, the whole country has 42,005 tour guide cards that have been issued and are in operation, including 24,901 international tour guide cards, 14,934 domestic tour guide cards, and 2,170 on-site tour guide cards.

Of the total 24,901 international tour guide cards issued, there are 13,571 English tour guide cards, 6,327 Chinese tour guide cards, 1,363 French tour guide cards, 1,293 Korean tour guide cards, 691 Japanese tour guide cards, 399 Russian tour guide cards, 349 German tour guide cards, 329 Thai tour guide cards, 312 Spanish tour guide cards, 176 Italian tour guide cards, and the rest are in other languages.

The demand for Vietnam's tourism market in 2025 is increasing sharply, as shown by the sharp increase in international searches from late 2024 and early 2025, with key markets including the US, India, Japan, South Korea and European countries such as the UK and Germany. Accordingly, the number of international searches for Vietnam tourism from the beginning of the year to now has achieved a growth rate of about 10% -25%, ranking 7th in the world. Vietnam is also the only destination in Southeast Asia in the top 10, far surpassing other competitors in the region such as the Philippines (#18), Singapore (#25), Thailand (#36), Indonesia (#37), Malaysia (#39).

The top 10 cities in Vietnam that are most searched by international tourists include: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Vung Tau, Da Lat, Phan Thiet, and Hue. Meanwhile, Vung Tau and Ninh Binh are the two destinations that recorded the highest growth (up over 75%). The markets that are searching the most for Vietnamese tourism are the US, India, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong./.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/hoi-nghi-lu-hanh-toan-quoc-nam-2025-du-lich-viet-nam-no-luc-dat-muc-tieu-25-trieu-luot-khach-quoc-te-20250905235033603.htm