Strong recovery, leading the region
After 2 years of "frozen" due to the pandemic, Vietnam officially opened tourism from March 15, 2022. From this milestone, Vietnam's tourism has continuously achieved impressive recovery, becoming the fastest recovering country in Southeast Asia.
In 2022, Vietnam welcomed 3.7 million international visitors. By 2023, the number will skyrocket to 12.6 million, equivalent to 70% of the pre-pandemic level. In 2024, the number of international visitors will reach 17.6 million - recovering to 98% compared to the record in 2019 (18 million). While many countries in the region are still recovering slowly, Vietnam is considered a "bright spot" on the Asia-Pacific tourism map.
At the same time, the domestic tourism market continues to play a key role. In 2024 alone, domestic tourism will reach 110 million visitors, total tourism revenue of the whole industry will reach 840,000 billion VND, nearly double compared to 2022. In the first 5 months of 2025, Vietnam welcomed more than 9.2 million international visitors, with revenue reaching VND 418,000 billion - the highest in many years.
Launching from flexible operating policies
The success of tourism recovery cannot be lacking in the close leadership role of the Government. Many major policies such as Resolution 82/NQ-CP, Directive 08/CT-TTg, Official Dispatch 34/CD-TTg... have created a favorable legal corridor for businesses, localities and people to participate in tourism development.
Along with that is an open visa policy, increasing stay time, expanding visa exemptions, promoting long-term - high-spending international visitors.
Promotional and communication activities have also been renewed: Vietnam promotes tourism - cinema for the first time in Hollywood (USA), Cannes (France); building a campaign "Vietnam: Go to Love" to spread widely on global social networks. The website promoting Vietnamese tourism has risen to 2nd place in Southeast Asia according to the international ranking.
Diverse tourism products, a breakthrough opportunity after merging provinces and cities
The ecosystem of tourism products continues to be expanded with many new types: Agricultural tourism, health care, railway tourism, golf tourism, music tourism... Night products in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Hoi An, Da Nang... are well exploited, combined with light and virtual reality performance technology.
From July 1, the local government at both levels officially came into operation, along with the streamlining of the apparatus with 34 provinces and cities. This is an opportunity for local tourism to develop when combining the advantages of many provinces and cities.
For example, when Gia Lai and Binh Dinh merged, a new Gia Lai province was formed - a large-scale administrative unit with the outstanding advantage of "up to the forest, down to the sea" in tourism development. Or Lao Cai merging with Yen Bai will promote the highest advantages of natural landscape, cultural customs, costumes, festivals, and folk arts to help Lao Cai become a year-round festival land such as Sa Pa National Tourist Area; Bac Ha White Plateau; Y Ty commune community tourism destination; Nghia Do green tourism destination; Thac Ba lake; Mu Cang Chai terraced fields; Thai Dorsel Art; Tra Shan Tuyet festival; Mong flute performance festival...
Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung assessed: "Vietnam's tourism industry has made great efforts to adapt, recover, and innovate, affirming itself as a spearhead economic sector with the close direction of the Government, the efforts, solidarity, proactive implementation of tasks and policies of the entire State management system of tourism, the proactiveness, flexibility, and creativity of the business community and people doing tourism".
The Minister affirmed that in the 65 years of construction and development, regardless of the circumstances, the Vietnamese tourism industry has always strived to overcome all difficulties and challenges, excellently completing assigned tasks.
Not only contributing from the perspective of an economic sector, tourism is also a bridge of friendship to promote people-to-people exchanges and foreign culture. Through tourism activities, international friends get closer to the beautiful and hospitable country of Vietnam, contributing to enhancing the "soft" power of Vietnam in the world.
Still challenging
Despite many positive results, the tourism industry is still facing many bottlenecks that need to be resolved. First is the lack and weak tourism infrastructure. International airports such as Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai are often overloaded. Many key tourist localities do not have flights or seaports to receive tourist ships that are still in disarray.
In addition, the tourism industry is lacking high-quality human resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many workers to leave the industry. Currently, the lack of tour guides and service staff who know foreign languages and have digital skills is a big problem for both businesses and localities.
The level of international guests is still low. Short stay time, limited auxiliary services, shopping - entertainment experience is not rich, making international tourists not really "hooking up" when coming to Vietnam.
According to tourism experts, in the face of the opportunity to recover and make a breakthrough, the tourism industry needs to urgently reposition the Vietnamese tourism brand towards professionalism - modernity - identity. Build national destination symbols such as "Green Vietnam", "Living Heritage", "Experience imbued with the identity of East Asia"...
Invest in synchronous infrastructure, prioritizing traffic axes connecting inter-regional tourism clusters. Upgrading international airports, developing high-speed trains, yachts, and specialized railways to serve tourists.
Re-training tourism human resources, associated with foreign languages, technology, and specialized expertise. Strengthen international cooperation to standardize industry skills.
Promote comprehensive digital transformation, support small businesses - local communities to access digital platforms to promote, sell tours, and operate intelligently.
Focus on exploiting the high-end market, increasing the number of days of stay, improving service quality, developing MICE tourism, healthcare, high-end resorts, golf...
The tourism industry is expected to reach the target of VND 1,000 billion in revenue and make an important contribution to the GDP growth target of 8% in 2025.
