Vietnam sees 25 % rise in foreign tourists in 2004
Vietnam’s tourism industry has fully recovered from cancellations caused by the SARS virus outbreak and visitor arrivals are
expected to reach 2.75 million next year -- up 25 percent from this year’s target, officials say.
“The bad time is over, we are heading into a boom,” Pham Tu, Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism, told Reuters.
Tu said the industry is set to receive about 2.2 million tourists this year against last year’s 2.63 million. Despite the decline, it is
significantly higher than the industry’s bleak prediction of 1.6 million made in May after the SARS outbreak. Tu confirmed a
forecast in a recent report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment to the National Assembly, Vietnam’s highest legislative
body, which predicted foreign tourists arrivals in 2004 at 2.75 million.
Vietnam was declared free of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in late April. Tu said the tourism revival was fueled
mainly by the industry’s spending on promotions and international advertising.
Vietnam has also made it easier for foreign tourists to visit, waiving visas for nationals of Japan – one of its top sources of
visitors. It is considering a similar move for Singapore and France. There are approximately three million overseas Vietnamese,
known as “viet kieu”, but the figures did not single them out among the visitor arrivals.
L'Express (.mu) - November 6, 2003
|