World Cup blamed in part for Vietnam tourist slump
HANOI - The World Cup and Asia's financial crisis have hit tourism in
Vietnam, with arrivals well down on 1997, a
government official said on Monday.
Around 800,000 foreigners visited Vietnam
during the first half of 1998, down 10 percent
on the same period last year, the National
Administration of Tourism official said.
He blamed the regional economic meltdown and
the World Cup soccer tournament in France for
declining figures, but said poor infrastructure
and ineffective advertising were also to blame.
Vietnam includes foreign holiday makers and
business people in its tourism figures.
Foreign arrivals in 1997 grew 12.5 percent over
the previous year to around 1.8 million people,
but this marked a slowdown from 1995's
explosive growth of 33 percent.
Foreign direct investment inflows have slowed
and from January-May this year total new
approvals were worth $1.15 billion, down 14
percent from the same period last year, Planning
and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia said last
Monday.
Vietnam has marked strong growth in foreign
tourist and business arrivals since the country
began to open its doors to the outside world in
the late 1980s.
But growth slowed as the communist country's
reform efforts stagnated and fallout from the
regional crisis began to be felt.
State-run Vietnam Airlines, for long a major
success story, lost money last year and has cut
international and domestic routes and the size of
its fleet.
REUTERS, June 22, 1998.
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