Vietnam's tourism earnings surge

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported, late last week, tourism revenue during the first half of 2011 surged 35.5% to VND62 trillion compared to VND45 trillion, last year, mainly due to increases in service prices and tourist arrivals particularly in high-spending segments.

For January to June this year, Vietnam welcomed 2,965,820 international travellers improving 18.14% from 2,510, 521 visits over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, domestic travellers reached 17.5 million visits slightly increase 2.94% from 17 million during the same period last year.

Tourism director, Nguyen Van Tuan, said the average length of stay in the country was about 10.5 days with spending at US$1,024 per head excluding airfares. Australia and Russia were top supply markets.

However, the average length of stay in Ho Chi Min City was lower than the country’s average rate at 2.5 days as more visitors were travelling to other destinations in the country.

Currently, the country has 12,000 accommodation units with 235,000 rooms. Three to five-star facilities represent 19% of all available rooms.

There are 48 five-star hotels with over 12,000 rooms, 110 four-star hotel with nearly 13,500 rooms and 235 three-star hotels with nearly 16,400 rooms.

Source - ttrweekly