The country’s tourism industry is moving in the right direction, and its 2018 visitor numbers rose at one of the fastest rates in the world, the 2019 Tourism Highlight report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) early this week said.

“In Southeast Asia, most destinations posted strong growth, particularly Vietnam. Outbound tourism from China and India fuelled growth in many destinations in the region.”

Vietnam’s foreign visitor numbers rose 19.9 percent to a record 15 million last year, putting it 10th in the list of fastest growers, which was topped by Ecuador with 51 percent. Iran was second with 49.9 percent and Egypt, third with 36.8 percent.

The rest of the top 10 were Uganda (31.9 percent), Comoros (28.2 percent), Nepal (24.8 percent), Slovenia (23.4 percent), Turkey (21.7 percent), and Palestine (20.5 percent).

The report said France was the most visited country in 2018 with 89 million, followed by Spain and the U.S.

Thailand remained the region’s largest destination attracting around 38.2 million foreign arrivals.

The Asia-Pacific region had the second highest market share of 25 percent after Europe’s 51 percent. The Americas were third with 15 percent.

In the Asia-Pacific, growth was significant in Southeast and South Asia. Southeast Asia received 128.7 million visitors, a 7.8 percent increase, the highest rate in Asia.

“Growth in international tourist arrivals and receipts continues to outpace the world economy and both emerging and advanced economies are benefiting from rising tourism income,” said Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary general of the UNWTO.

Tourism last year contributed 8.39 percent to Vietnam’s GDP. The government seeks to make the industry an economic spearhead.

With visa waivers for several countries in Asia and Europe, the government expected to see around 20 million foreign visitors in 2020 and earn $35 billion in annual revenues by then, equivalent to 10 percent of GDP, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Vietnam will become a leading travel destination in the next five years, the latest Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts report released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association said.

Agoda, the world’s leading online accommodation reservations provider, has used bookings data for travel between August 31 and September 3 to assess the 10 most popular overseas destinations for Vietnamese travelers for the National Day (September 2) holiday.

Bangkok tops the list, followed by Singapore and Bali in Indonesia. Bali is one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, dubbed the Island of Gods and a paradise on earth with its beautiful beaches, ancient Hindu culture and vibrant nightlife.

The resort island of Bali in Indonesia. Photo by Shutterstock/Cocos Bounty.

Around one million Vietnamese came to Thailand in 2018, putting Vietnam among the kingdom’s top 10 tourism markets, according to a recent report by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Bangkok’s high popularity among Vietnamese holiday goers is reflected in the fact that 30 airlines have direct routes connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with the city.

Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur came in fourth while Taiwan’s Taipei stood in the fifth position.

The rest of the top 10 included South Korea’s Seoul, Japan’s Tokyo, France’s Paris, Thailand’s Pattaya and Cambodia’s Phnom Penh.

Citizens of ASEAN member nations can travel within the region without applying for a visa and stay as a tourist for a maximum of 30 days.

Increasing numbers of Vietnamese have been going abroad in recent years. Last year, 8.6 million traveled overseas, up 15 percent from a year ago.

Vietnamese tourists spend an estimated $7-8 billion per year overseas, said Vu The Binh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association. “Vietnamese traveling abroad is a growing trend,” he added.

Industry insiders said that as more Vietnamese join the middle class, they are increasingly looking outward for travel destinations. A World Bank report in 2017 said the country is seeing an increasing number of people, estimated at 1.5 million each year, join the ranks of the middle and upper classes.

“As Vietnam’s economy grows, and an increasing number of citizens join the ranks of the global middle and upper classes, more people are going to take an interest in traveling the world,” said Sean Preston, Visa’s country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

According to Mastercard, Vietnam has the second fastest growing outbound market in the Asia Pacific region after Myanmar, with projected annual growth of 9.5 percent between 2016 and 2021. The firm has forecast that some 7.5 million Vietnamese travelers will venture outside the country in 2021.

From January to June, Chinese arrivals to Vietnam were nearly 2.5 million, down 3.3 percent year-on-year. Despite the slight decrease, China topped the list of foreign tourists, followed by South Korea with 2.1 million arrivals.

The drop of Chinese tourists has affected the total number of international visitors to Vietnam during the period, with growth seeing a lower increase than in previous years.

Foreign tourists in Vietnam in the six-month period this year were 8.5 million, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. The growth in the same period last year was 27.2 percent. Seventy percent of visitors arrived by air.

A Bloomberg report said Chinese tourists have a big impact on Vietnam’s economy. It said a 30 percent increase in spending by Chinese tourists would boost Vietnam’s economic growth by nearly 1 percentage point. For Thailand, that would be around 1.6 percentage points.

“Chinese tourism is pretty big for ASEAN now, and all the countries rely on Chinese visitors to keep coming and keep spending,” Edward Lee, an economist with Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, was quoted as saying in the report.

Survey results released last year by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, show the average daily spending by a Chinese visitor in Vietnam increased from $118.6 in 2014 to $130 last year. This was below what Chinese visitors spent in Thailand ($180), Indonesia ($183) and Singapore ($446).

Chinese tourists on the waters in front of Ban Gioc waterfalls in Cao Bang Province. Photo by AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam.

Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the country has been doing more to boost tourism promotion in China, the largest source market for Vietnam. Most countries around the world are paying a lot of attention to attracting tourists from the Chinese market, he added.

Since 2012, tourists from China have been the world’s top spender in international tourism, leading global outbound travel, South China Morning Post reported. CLSA, a Hong Kong brokerage and investment firm, predicted that more than 200 million Chinese tourists are expected to make outbound trips in 2020; and Vietnam stands to benefit, too.

Many direct flights connecting major Vietnamese major cities with China have been launched over the past years to cater to growing demand.

Chinese visitors have also been encouraged by a new policy that allows groups to visit the border province of Quang Ninh in northern Vietnam, home to the popular Ha Long Bay, for up to three days without a visa.

The Vietnamese government has also allowed Chinese nationals to apply for 30-day single-entry electronic visas for holidays and business trips.

Boom from Asia

More than 150,000 Thai nationals arrived in Vietnam in the first half of this year, posting the highest national demographic growth of 45.4 percent year-on-year, followed by Taiwan (27 percent), Indonesia (21.9 percent), South Korea (21.3 percent), the Philippines (25 percent) and Japan (12.8 percent).

The recent launch of direct flights connecting Vietnam’s top tourist destinations like Da Nang, Nha Trang and Da Lat with Thailand’s tourism hubs has pushed this growth, market observers say.

Earlier this year, Bangkok Airways opened a direct route from Bangkok to Cam Ranh, an hour south of its much busier sister Nha Trang Town in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

Vietnam’s tourism revenue in the first six months of the year is estimated at VND338.2 trillion ($14.5 billion), up 8.4 percent year-on-year.

While Vietnam is the midst of a tourism boom with a record high 15.5 million foreign arrivals in 2018, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, the numbers have remained lower than that of neighboring countries in the region. Thailand (38 million), Malaysia (25 million) and Singapore (18.5 million) remain far ahead of Vietnam.

At a National Assembly session last year Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said the country needs to stop relying on crude oil and focus on tourism to sustain its economic growth. “It’s better to get one million tourists than try to find one million tons of crude oil because tourism is more eco-friendly and safe for the economy,” he said.

Many travel agencies have said that Vietnam should further relax its visa policies and simplify procedures to attract high spending tourists from Japan, North America, Northern Europe, China and South Korea. They have called for the current 15-day visa exemption extended to 30 days.

A video captures the bustling Bui Vien Street in HCMC, one of Vietnam’s most popular hangouts for foreign tourists.

The 2019 Passport Index, commissioned by Arton Capital, a global financial advisory firm based in Singapore, shows that people holding a Vietnamese passport has free access to 61 countries and territories, compared to 56 last year.

The index ranks passports of 199 countries and territories based on the number of countries the holder can visit without first obtaining a visa or applying for one on entry.

In Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese passport is only more powerful than Laos and Myanmar.

Singapore and Malaysia have the most powerful passports in the region with the former ranking 4th with visa exemption from 166 countries and the latter standing 9th with 161 countries.

Cambodia has moved up two places from last year to 71 with visa free access to 63 destinations.

Thailand has witnessed drastic improvement in its global ranking to claim the 52nd position. Thais can now travel to 85 countries and territories without applying for a visa, slightly higher than Indonesians with visa-free access to 81 destinations.

The United Arab Emirates has managed to secure its throne with the most powerful passport in the world, whose citizens are able to visit 173 of 199 countries and territories without applying for a visa.

Finland, Luxembourg and Spain shared the second place, with their citizens able to visit 168 destinations without applying for a visa.

Enjoying visa-free access to 167 destinations, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. came in third.

The American passport has lagged behind the UAE and is no longer the strongest in the world since the Donald Trump administration began pursuing a hardline immigration policy.

People from poor, conflict-torn Somalia, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have the weakest passports, with visa free access to just 29-38 countries and territories.

As more Vietnamese join the middle class, they are increasingly looking outward for travel destinations.

A World Bank report in 2017 said the country is seeing an increasing number of people, estimated at 1.5 million each year, join the ranks of the middle and upper classes.

“As Vietnam’s economy grows, and an increasing number of citizens join the ranks of the global middle and upper classes, more people are going to take an interest in traveling the world,” said Sean Preston, Visa’s country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

According to Mastercard, Vietnam has the second fastest growing outbound market in the Asia Pacific region after Myanmar, with projected annual growth of 9.5 percent between 2016 and 2021