Vietnam tourism statistics 2025

 

Vietnam’s Tourism Sector Set For Record Year in 2025

Despite a string of devastating storms in the second half of the year, foreign tourist arrivals have risen by more than a fifth.

By Sebastian Strangio

December 19, 2025

https://thediplomat.com/2025/12/vietnams-tourism-sector-set-for-record-year-in-2025/

Vietnam is on track to receive a record high of 21 million foreign tourists this year, its Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism said earlier this week, making it the fastest-growing tourist destination in Southeast Asia.

The Ministry said that the country had received more than 19 million international visitors in the first 11 months of 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 20.9 percent. This put it on track to smash the previous record of 18 million set in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 15, the country welcomed its 20 millionth international visitor at Phu Quoc International Airport in southern Vietnam, which state media described as “a historic milestone in the 65-year development of the country’s tourism sector.”

Since Vietnam fully reopened its tourism sector in March 2022, the industry has recovered strongly, with international arrivals climbing to 12.6 million in 2023 and then 17.6 million in 2024. The country recorded around 10 million international visitors in 2016. Some observers put the rapid growth down to the loosening of Vietnam’s visa policies and an increase in the number of nonstop flights to the country. According to the International Air Transport Association, Vietnam’s air transport market registered the highest growth rate amongst the top 10 markets in the Asia-Pacific region, expanding by 121 percent from 2014 to 2024.

Vietnam now ranks as the third-most-visited country in Southeast Asia, lagging behind only Malaysia, which welcomed around 25 million visitors in 2024, and Thailand (35 million). The health of Vietnam’s tourism industry stands in marked contrast to Thailand, Southeast Asia’s tourism leader, which has failed to return to its 2019 record of nearly 40 million international arrivals. The country welcomed 35.54 million foreign visitors last year, an increase of more than a quarter on 2023’s figures, but the recovery has stalled and gone into reverse in 2025.

For every month of the year bar January, Thailand has seen declines on the corresponding months in 2024, the steepest of which occurred in May, June, and July. In September, the government was forced to reduce its forecast for foreign tourist arrivals this year from 37 million to 33 million; this has since been further reduced to 32 million, which would represent a 9.8 percent decline from 2024.

There are a number of possible reasons for the shortfall. Back in August, I noted the growing safety concerns of foreign visitors after a horrific incident in which two Malaysian tourists were set on fire in downtown Bangkok, a story that has gained widespread international coverage. Relatedly, Thailand has also been associated with online scamming operations following the high-profile kidnapping in January of the Chinese actor Wang Xing, who was later rescued from a scamming center in Myanmar. The border dispute with Cambodia has also likely helped depress visitor numbers.

According to a report this week by Khaosod English, the Tourism Authority of Thailand attributes the drop to the flooding that has hit the country’s southern provinces during peak tourism season and the ongoing tensions with Cambodia.

“Given the overall negative circumstances that have occurred, having foreign tourist arrivals exceed 30 million is already an excellent figure,” said TAT Governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Khaosod reported.