HANOI, Feb 9 (NNN-VNA) – Tourist hotspots across Vietnam received some 6.1 million domestic visitors during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday that ended on Sunday, the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, yesterday.
During the biggest holiday of the year, domestic travellers surpassed the number posted in Dec, 2021, at 5.2 million, bringing over 25 trillion Vietnamese dongs (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue.
Southern Tay Ninh province hosted the largest number of visitors at 595,000, followed by southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province and central highlands, Lam Dong province.
Although Hanoi cancelled festivals and activities over COVID-19 concerns, the Vietnamese capital city recorded 105,000 tourists during the holiday. The visitors were mainly from nearby localities such as northern Bac Giang, Ha Nam and Thai Binh provinces.
Vietnam aims to attract 65 million tourists this year, up 150 percent against last year, including five million foreigners, earning 400 trillion Vietnamese dongs (17.6 billion dollars), according to the ministry. It recently proposed the full resumption of inbound and outbound tourism, starting Mar 31, when the country is expected to have completed administering the third shot of COVID-19 vaccines.
In 2021, Vietnam hosted just 157,300 international arrivals, plunging 95.9 percent on a yearly basis, mainly due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its General Statistics Office.– NNN-VNA
