International visitors to Vietnam in January increased to a record level

Indian tourists take a boat to visit Trang An, Ninh Binh on the occasion of Lunar New Year

Vietnam’s tourism industry had an impressive start to the new year when it welcomed a record number of international visitors, nearly 2.1 million in January. This number increased by nearly 19% compared to the previous month (1.74 million) and nearly 37% compared to the same period in 2024 (1.5 million). The number of visitors in the first month of this year was even higher than January 2019 and January 2020, two golden times for Vietnam tourism before slowing down due to the pandemic, according to the National Tourism Administration.

China has returned to being the number one market sending visitors to Vietnam with 575,000 arrivals; accounting for 27.7% of the total number of international visitors and much higher than the same period in January 2019 with more than 370,000 arrivals. The impressive recovery of the Chinese market, according to the Department of Tourism, is thanks to many connecting activities to open up the market and strengthen cooperation and exchange of tourists between the two countries.

South Korea ranked second with more than 417,000 arrivals. January also saw growth in Cambodian visitors, as the market rose to the top three with more than 100,000 arrivals. In December 2024, Cambodia was in the top nine. The next markets sending the most visitors were the US, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, India, Malaysia, and Thailand.

In terms of growth, the Chinese tourist file increased by nearly 140% compared to the same period in 2024. Cambodia increased sharply by nearly 170%, followed by the US, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and India. Southeast Asian regions also recorded significant growth, such as the number of Filipino tourists to Vietnam increased by more than 100%, and Laos by nearly 100%.

Besides, many European markets with visa exemption from Vietnam continue to have positive growth such as Russia (growth of 116%), Norway (36%), Germany (23%).
Welcoming a record number of nearly 2.1 million visitors in the first month of 2025 is the result of the efforts of the Vietnamese tourism industry over the past year and in the context of the Asian tourism industry recovering at a lower rate than other regions in the world .

HQ (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/khach-quoc-te-den-viet-nam-thang-1-tang-ky-luc-404705.html