Vietnam's tourism industry earns $1B during five-day holidays

The country served more than 300,000 foreign visitors and served 7 million domestic tourists during the holiday break, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Last year, Vietnam served 5 million tourists during the holidays.

This year's occupancy rate at tourist accomodation establishments was 60% and even up to 95-100% at some sites.

Localities across the country saw a boom in the number of tourists during the five-day break, the second longest national holidays after the Lunar New Year (Tet) Festival.

The Tourism Department of Hanoi said on May 3 that during the holidays, the capital city served 719,000 tourists, including 69,500 foreigners, and earned around VND2.4 trillion from the visitors.

Tourist sites in Ho Chi Minh City welcomed around 950,000 visitors, including 48,000 foreigners. The southern metropolis pocketed about VND3.13 trillion from tourism services.

The central province of Thanh Hoa had 1.2 million tourists, an increase of 33% compared with the same period last year. Income from tourists was about VND2.8 trillion, up by 48.3%.

Meanwhile, with many attractive activities and programmes, tourist sites in the central city of Da Nang served more than 321,600 tourists, of whom 34,800 are foreigners, during the five-day holidays.

Some sites saw large numbers of holiday-makers are Sun World Ba Na Hills (nearly 65,000 arrivals), Ngu Hanh Son (28,000 arrivals), Than Tai Mount Hot Spring Park (17,300 arrivals), and Mikazuki Water Park (13,000 arrivals).

In the northern mountainous region, Lao Cai Province welcomed around 227,200 tourist arrivals, earning VND712 billion, up 53% and 30% year-on-year, respectively.

The province's Sa Pa town, home to Fansipan Peak – the highest mountain in Indochina, served 103,000 tourists and pocketed over VND335 billion.