Double-digit drop for Vietnam tourism

International visitor arrivals to Vietnam have fallen for a fifth consecutive month, as Chinese travellers continue to stay away from the country.

According to the latest data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the Southeast Asian country welcomed 559,002 overseas visitors in September 2014 – 11.1% fewer than the same month last year. This followed a year-on-year drop of 3.9% in September, 8.6% in August, 14.2% in July and 4.9% in June 2014.

And this decline has been driven by a slump in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Vietnam, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries over the Paracel Islands.

China is by far Vietnam’s largest visitor source market, but arrivals from the mainland fell 18.7% in October 2014, to 143,786. And the number of visitors from Taiwan has also continued to fall, dropping 21.2% last month to 26,821.

Other key Asian source markets continued to rise however, including South Korea (+22.9% to 69,608) and Japan (+4.9% to 50,065), but arrivals from Russia – Vietnam’s largest European source market – slumped 32.2% to 14,970.

But despite the recent downturn in arrivals, Vietnam remains on track to achieve full-year growth. For the first 10 months of 2014, arrivals to the country have now increased 8.0% to 6.61 million.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com