Nearly 1.5 million foreign arrivals to HCMC in first half of this yearHCMC greeted 1,487,000 foreign tourists in the first six months this year, an increase of 16% over the same period last year, reaching 49% of the yearly plan. Foreign tourists mainly come to the city by air, with an estimated 1.2 million people, a year-on-year increase of 12%. Foreign tourists traveling by other means reached an estimated 287,000 people, a year-on-year increase of 30%. In particular, foreign tourists traveling by sea saw the strongest growth over the past three year, reaching an estimated 21,000 people, a year-on-year increase of 40%. An official from the HCM City Tourism Department said that the completion of the trans-Asia road, the upgrading of more international border gates in the Southern provinces and the effectiveness of caravan tourism promotion contributed to increasing the number of foreign tourists by road, reaching an estimated 266,000 people. Traditional markets saw 10-15% growth in the number of tourists. Of which, markets witnessing the strongest increases are China with 37%, Singapore with 35%, Malaysia with 31% and France with 26%. In spite of not being named among the ten markets with the largest growth tourist number, the Russian market, with tourist teams under MICE type, promises to develop strongly if promotion campaign of Vietnam’s image is carried out effectively in Russia. (Source: CPV) |
