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Foreign arrivals may fall 20 percent in 2009
Foreign arrivals to Vietnam may fall 20 percent this year to only 3.3 million as a result of the global economic crisis and the influenza A (H1N1) scare, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Friday.
Minister Hoang Tuan Anh said the ministry had to lower the annual target as arrivals declined in the January-May period amid the economic downturn while the influenza scare emerged as a new deterrent.
The number of foreign arrivals fell 18.8 percent year-on-year to 1.6 million in the first five months this year. The number of visitors from key markets, including China, the US and South Korea, dropped by as much as 38 percent, figures from the General Statistics Office show.
The tourism sector, employing more than 10 percent of country’s workforce, planned to attract 4.3 million foreign visitors this year after arrivals increased 0.6 percent to 4.2 million in 2008.
Although the number of foreign tourists will fall, the sector’s revenues could remain unchanged thanks to the increasing number of domestic tourists, Anh said.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the number of domestic tourists rose by 50 percent from a year earlier in the four months of implementing the Impressive Vietnam promotion campaign, launched in January and ending in September.
VNAT expects the tourism sector to earn VND65 trillion (US$3.65 billion) this year.
“Right now the focus is to increase the number of domestic tourists,” Anh said, adding local businesses should try to improve services in preparation for a recovery of the global tourism industry.
The London-based World Tourism & Travel Council estimated in March that global travel revenues will fall 3.6 percent this year, according to Bloomberg.
Thanhnien, TBKTSG Online
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