Vietnam’s tourism industry experienced strong growth in the first half of 2017, registering a 30% increase in terms of international visitor numbers.

According to the latest data released by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country welcomed a total of 6.21 million overseas arrivals in the first six months of the year, 30.2% more than in the same period in 2016. This included a 33% surge in arrivals by air – a key indicator of international business and leisure travel.

The growth was driven by two main feeder markets: mainland China and South Korea. Vietnam welcomed 1.89m Chinese and 1.07m Korean visitors in the six-month period, up 56.7% and 43.9% year-on-year respectively. This means that these two Asian countries accounted for 47.5% of total arrivals to Vietnam. And  further demonstrating the strength of the intra-regional travel market, Asian countries contributed almost three quarters of all visitors to the country.

Other major Asian source markets included Japan (+6.5% to 378,844), Taiwan (+22.9% to 297,852) and Malaysia (+15.9% to 231,585). The USA (+9.3% to 320,204) was Vietnam’s largest long-haul feeder market, followed by Russia (+53.4% to 313,502) and Australia (+10.0% to 181,526).

Vietnam’s tourism industry is now well on track to achieving another record year; last year the country welcomed a total of 10.01m international arrivals – the first time in history it had exceeded the 10m mark.