Top tourist destinations witness Tet travel boom

The northern province of Ninh Binh, home to UNESCO heritage site Trang An Landscape Complex, welcomed 330,000 tourists between January 20 and 26, 25 times higher than last year.

Hanoi received 332,000 visitors, including 32,000 foreigners, triple last year’s number.

Though the central region was hit by bad weather during the holidays, there too some localities saw recovery.

Hue, famous for its royal temples and Imperial Citadel, received 95,000 tourists, double last year’s number.

Quang Nam, home to Hoi An town, saw visitor numbers surge 3.8 times to 215,000 as hotel occupancy rates topped 85%.

Khanh Hoa, which is home to the twin beach resort towns of Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, welcomed 151,000 visitors, double last year’s figure.

Nguyen Thi Le Thanh, director of the Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism, said the target for this year is four million tourists since China’s reopening has kindled hopes.

In the south, the number of visitors to Ba Ria-Vung Tau, home to beach town Vung Tau, increased by 1.5 times and streets leading to beaches were gridlocked with long lines of vehicles.

Other tourist hotspots like Da Lat also reported an increase in visitor numbers.

Foreign tourists also arrived by luxury cruise ships.

On New Year’s Day the Silver Spirit from Hong Kong brought 500 American and European tourists to Ha Long Bay.

On Thursday the Malta-flagged Mein Schiff 5 cruise vessel docked in Ba Ria-Vung Tau with 2,370 foreign visitors, mainly Germans.