Tourism boom keeps visitors coming to Vietnam
HANOI - Vietnam's booming tourism industry welcomed a record-setting three-millionth visitor of the year on Friday and has seen arrivals up more than 20 percent this year, a tourism official said.
The country expects a total 3,5 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2005, according to Vu The Binh, head of the travel department at the National Administration for Tourism.
A 33-year-old Japanese woman who arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday afternoon was the three millionth tourist arrival, Binh said on Friday.
Tourism is one of the cornerstone's of communist Vietnam's rapid growth plans and is expected to bring in $3,1-billion (about R21-billion) to Vietnam's economy in 2005, around eight percent of GDP, the local newspaper Vietnam Financial Times reported.
Tourist arrivals have nearly doubled in the past five years as the country seeks to cash in on its reputation for safety, its 1 800km of coastline and Unesco World Heritage sites like the Halong Bay limestone cliffs and the ancient My Son temples. Vietnam plans to attract six million tourists a year by 2010, Binh added.
"Over the next five years, Vietnam considers tourism as a spearhead industry and we target an average annual growth of 20 percent each year," Binh said.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - November 15, 2005.
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