According to the General Statistics Office, in December 2019, the country welcomed 1.7 million tourists from other countries.

This brings the total number of international visitors to Vietnam this year to 18 million, which is a 16.2% increase compared to last year and an all-time record, Vietnamplus reports. Out of these 18 million tourists, 79.8% arrived by air, 18.7% traveled by road, and the rest arrived through water transport.

In 2019, Asian tourists accounted for 79.9% of all international tourists, and visitor numbers from the continent grew 19.1% compared to last year. The number of visitors from other regions also increased, namely Europe (6.4%), the Americas (7.7%) and Africa (12.2%). The only exception is the number of visitors from Australia, which saw a 1.2% decline compared to 2018.

As for domestic visitors, Vietnam saw 85 million Vietnamese travel this year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Total revenue from both international and domestic tourists this year reach VND726 trillion (US$31.4 billion), a 17.1% increase from last year. Vietnam’s tourism industry targets to have 20.5 million international visits and 90 million domestic tourists in 2020.

The tourism sector also aims to rake in a total revenue of VND830 trillion (US$35.9 billion) next year. The objective was laid out by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has been tasked with coming up with initiatives and programs in order to achieve this goal.

[Photo via Flickr user JD]