The number of international arrivals to Vietnam in March alone reached more than 2.05 million, an increase of nearly 29% over the same period in 2024.
In terms of market size, China is the largest sending market for Vietnam's tourism industry with 1.58 million visitors. The Republic of Korea (RoK) ranked second with 1.26 million visitors. In total, these two markets contributed 47% of the total number of international arrivals to Vietnam in the past quarter.
In addition, Taiwan (China) is the third largest sending market with 331,000 visitors. The US ranked 4th with 259,000 arrivals, Cambodia ranked 5th with 234,000 arrivals, Japan ranked 6th with 226,000 arrivals.
The next largest markets sending visitors were Australia with 147,000 arrivals, India with 143,000 arrivals, Malaysia with 141,000 arrivals, and Russia with 125,000 arrivals.
In terms of growth drivers, China is still the main growth driver in the number of international visitors to Vietnam. This market has increased by about 78.3% compared to the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, other markets such as: the RoK, Taiwan (China), the US, Japan, Australia, and India have all shown many positive signals.
Markets in the Southeast Asian region have good growth. Cambodia can be reached with an increase of about 105.6% and the Philippines has increased by about 95.1%. In addition, the markets of Laos, Indonesia, and Thailand have also developed somewhat.
The number of tourists from many European countries continues to grow at double-digit rates. Especially markets that enjoy unilateral visa exemption policies such as: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. In particular, the Russian market increased sharply by 110.5% compared to the same period in 2024.
The Polish and Swiss markets also showed positive signs, increasing by 52.9% and 14.1% respectively compared to the same period last year. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) believes that this effectiveness comes from the government's issuance of Resolution 11/NQ-CP on short-term visa exemption for Polish, Czech, and Swiss citizens from March 1 to December 31, 2025, under the 2025 Tourism Development Stimulus Programme.
This policy is expected to create momentum to attract more visitors from the three markets of Poland, Czech Republic, and Switzerland and has clearly achieved initial successes in the first three months of 2025.
Thus, on the recovery momentum of 2024, the number of international visitors to Vietnam in the past three months has reached over 6 million, an increase of 134% over the same period in 2019 — the time before the COVID-19 outbreak.
The VNAT assessed that the first quarter of 2025 recorded the highest number of international visitors in a quarter ever in our country's tourism industry.
To achieve the target of welcoming 22-23 million international visitors this year, the entire industry needs to focus on vigorously implementing the Tourism Development Stimulus Programme, innovating promotion methods, improving service quality and increasing the attractiveness of products and destinations in Vietnam.
