Foreign tourism in Vietnam a shadow of pre-COVID boom

Visa policy, missing Chinese blamed for slow recovery; India offers hope

Ha Long Bay, a popular tourist destination in northern Vietnam, is only drawing around half as many foreign visitors as before the pandemic, local industry officials say. (Photo by Tomoya Onishi)

TOMOYA ONISHI, Nikkei staff writer

December 18, 2022 13:02 JST

HANOI -- Tourism in Vietnam is struggling to recover from the COVID-19 slowdown, although the country has already lifted pandemic-related travel restrictions.

In the first 10 months of this year, 2.4 million foreign tourists visited Vietnam, around 15% of the number before who entered the country before the pandemic struck, according to Vietnam's General Statistics Office.