In the first month of 2026, Vietnam's tourism continued to set records when the number of international visitors reached the highest level ever.
According to the latest data from the Statistics Office, in January, Vietnam welcomed nearly 2.5 million international visitors, an increase of 21.4% compared to the previous month and an increase of 18.5% compared to the same period last year. This is the month with the highest number of international visitors to Vietnam in monthly records.
Regarding entry methods, air travel still dominates with more than 1.9 million passengers, an increase of 8.8%. Passenger arrivals by sea reached about 58,500, an increase of 30%.
Notably, the number of international visitors to Vietnam by road increased the most, reaching 440,700, equivalent to an increase of 92.9% compared to the previous month.
Regarding market structure, Asia continues to be the largest sending area of Vietnamese tourism with more than 1.8 million arrivals, up 12.3%. Europe recorded the strongest increase, up 59%, reaching 424,000 arrivals. The markets of America, Australia and Africa also maintained the upward momentum, increasing by 14.2%, 13% and 45.4% respectively.
Along with the strong increase in scale, the ranking of the largest sending markets to Vietnam also has a notable change.
South Korea rose to the top with nearly 49,000 visitors, followed by China with nearly 460,000 visitors.
Cambodia became the biggest highlight when recording more than 223,000 visitors, for the first time rising to the position of the third largest tourist sending market in the month, surpassing Taiwan (China). Previously, Cambodia was usually only in the group from top 6 to top 10 markets of Vietnamese tourism.
Other leading sending markets include Taiwan (China), Japan, the US, Australia, Russia, India and Malaysia. Among these, the number of visitors from Malaysia and China recorded a slight decrease of 2-6% compared to the previous month.
Regarding growth momentum, Cambodia is the market with the highest growth rate, three times higher than in December 2025. Many other markets also achieved impressive growth rates of 30-70%, including South Korea, Russia, Australia, Italy, Japan and Denmark.
According to the Statistics Office, this positive result comes from breakthrough policies on visas, strong innovations in tourism promotion and promotion, along with product diversification and improved service quality, thereby increasing the attractiveness of Vietnamese tourism to international visitors.
Stepping into 2026, the tourism industry sets a target of welcoming 25 million international tourists, serving 150 million domestic tourists and achieving total tourism revenue of about 1.125 million billion VND.
