Number of foreign visitors to Viet Nam up 21% in 11 months
VGP - Viet Nam welcomed 19.15 million foreign arrivals during January-November, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent, reported the National Statistics Office.
China continued to be Viet Nam's largest tourist source market in January-November period, with nearly 4.8 million arrivals. South Korea ranked second with more than 3.9 million arrivals.
Northeast Asia remained the biggest source region for visitors to Viet Nam, as the four key markets, including mainland China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, accounted for 76 percent of total international arrivals, or nearly 10.5 million visitors.
The Chinese arrivals grew strongly by 43.1 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Japan and the U.S. also recorded solid rise of up to 15 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. Remarkably, the number of visitors from India soared by 47.2 percent.
European markets continued to grow strongly, demonstrating the effectiveness of Viet Nam's visa-exemption policy, notably Poland up 41.7 percent, the UK up 20.7 percent, France up 21.4 percent, Germany up 16.6 percent, Italy up 21.3 percent, Norway up 19.6 percent, and Switzerland up 17.1 percent.
Particularly Russian arrivals reached 593,000, up 190.9 percent year-on-year, reaffirming Russia's position as Viet Nam's largest market in Europe and the fastest-growing market in the region.
In November alone, 1.98 million foreigners travelled to Viet Nam, up 14 percent against the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.
Revenue from accommodation and food services in the first 11 months was estimated at VND767.8 trillion (US$29.12 billion), accounting for 12 percent of total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue.
The Government has supplemented 41 border gates to the list of ports that allow foreigners to enter and exit Viet Nam by e-visa, bringing the total ports to 83.
Once being granted an e-visa, a foreigner can enter and exit Viet Nam on multiple occasions within 90 days. These changes have made it easier for international tourists to visit Viet Nam and have enhanced the country's tourism attractiveness.
As part of the 2025 national tourism stimulus program, the Government adopted Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP to grant conditional visa exemptions to nationals of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. These visitors will benefit from a visa-free stay of up to 45 days if they travel under programs launched by authorized Vietnamese travel agencies. The policy is effective from March 1 to December 31, 2025.
Amid the general recovery of the tourism industry in Asia-Pacific, UN Tourism reported that Viet Nam and Japan were the two destinations with the world's highest growth rates in the first half of 2025. Tourism in both countries grew by 21 percent compared with the same period last year./.
