Malaysia newspaper features rise of Vietnam’s tourism

The article wrote "In the first quarter of 2018, Southeast Asia saw a 9.4 percent increase in tourist arrivals, which is the largest number recorded amongst all regions at the time. This figure exceeds the already robust six percent average growth for global tourism during the same period."

According to the article, Thailand recorded the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2017 at 35 million. The country also ranked fourth highest among global earners in tourism in 2017 at US$81 billion, behind the US at US$299 billion, Spain at US$96 billion and France with US$86 billion.

However, it said that "an emerging regional star in the tourism sector is Vietnam," as in 2017, Vietnam recorded the largest increase in tourist arrivals for the region, with each tourist spending an average of US$ 685. Vietnam’s tourism growth is the result of a concerted effort by its government in nurturing an attractive tourism industry, as well as understanding and solving the challenges faced, the article stressed.

Vietnam has been focused and determined to promote its trade and culture to other markets. In 2017, a lot of tourism promotion programmes were carried out in both scope and scale. Moreover, the country has identified barriers to incoming tourists that need to be solved to lure in more foreign visitors.

In 2017, 90 tourism accommodations were recognised as three- to five-star hotels in Vietnam, of which 13 are in the five-star class, 31 are in the four-star class and 46 in the three-star class. Currently, the country has 25,600 accommodation suitable for tourists, offering more than 508,000 rooms. This is an increase of 12 percent total accommodations and 11 percent total rooms compared to 2016.

"In moving forward, Vietnam has identified barriers to incoming tourists that need to be solved to improve its attractiveness to foreign arrivals. These include a limited visa policy compared to other countries, which was ranked by the Global Tourism Competitiveness Report at 116 in terms of visa requirements, the lowest among ASEAN countries.", the article wrote.

Vietnam and Southeast Asia in general need to take advantage of this growth and position themselves as some of the best destinations for international tourism, the article suggested.