Vietnam's domestic tourists hit 6.1 mln during Lunar New Year holiday

Tourist hotspots across Vietnam received some 6.1 million domestic visitors during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday that ended on Sunday, the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Tuesday.

During the biggest holiday of the year, domestic travelers surpassed the number posted in December 2021 at 5.2 million, bringing over 25 trillion Vietnamese dongs (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue.

Southern Tay Ninh province hosted the largest number of visitors at 595,000, followed by southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province and central highlands Lam Dong province.

Although Hanoi canceled festivals and activities over COVID-19 concerns, the Vietnamese capital city recorded 105,000 tourists during the holiday. The visitors were mainly from nearby localities such as northern Bac Giang, Ha Nam and Thai Binh provinces.

Vietnam aims to attract 65 million tourists this year, up 150 percent against last year, including 5 million foreigners, earning 400 trillion Vietnamese dongs (17.6 billion dollars), according to the ministry. It recently proposed the full resumption of inbound and outbound tourism starting March 31, when the country is expected to have completed administering the third shot of COVID-19 vaccines.

In 2021, Vietnam hosted just 157,300 international arrivals, plunging 95.9 percent on a yearly basis, mainly due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its General Statistics Office.