Last year, the number of foreign tourists visiting Vietnam increased by 40 percent...The Most Koreans

Last year, foreign tourists to Vietnam increased by about 40%, nearly recovering to levels just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the data showed.

Vietnam's statistics agency (GSO) said there were about 17.6 million foreign visitors to Vietnam last year, up 39.5% from the previous year, according to Vietnam News.

This is equivalent to 97.6% of the approximately 18 million visitors in 2019, just before COVID-19.

The National Statistical Office explained that the increase in the number of foreigners visiting Vietnam is due to tourist-friendly visa policies and strengthening tourism promotion and programs.

By country, the number of Korean visitors was about 4.57 million, up about 27% from the previous year, followed by about 3.74 million Chinese visitors, up 114% from the previous year.

In addition, Taiwan (approximately 1.29 million), the United States (approximately 780,000), and Japan (approximately 710,000) ranked third to fifth in visitors by country.

Vietnam's tourism industry aims to fully restore pre-COVID-19 levels this year by increasing the number of foreign tourists to about 22 million and domestic tourists to about 120 million to 130 million, respectively.

Through this, it will generate at least 980 trillion won in sales, accounting for about 6% of GDP, and create 5.5 million jobs directly and indirectly, including 1.8 million direct jobs.

In this regard, Vietnam is considering Thailand's proposed free-traffic zone agreement for six Southeast Asian countries.

The six-nation free-traffic zone agreement aims to further promote tourism in Southeast Asia by allowing six countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar, to pass freely through each other like the Treaty of Schengen in Europe.

Through the agreement, Thailand is promoting simplification of immigration procedures, promotion of joint tourism development between countries, and strengthening the connection between transportation and tourism.