
Tourism in Vietnam
Vietnam recorded a total of 4 million tourists in 2020, ranking 47th in the world in absolute terms.The fact that larger countries regularly perform better in a comparison of the absolute number of guests is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Vietnam, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.039 tourists per resident, Vietnam ranked 149th in the world. In Southeast Asia, it ranked 8th.
Vietnam generated around 3.23 billion US Dollar in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 1.2 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 11 percent of all international tourism receipts in Southeast Asia.
A global comparison can be found here › International tourism
Back to overview: Vietnam
Most popular destinations in Vietnam
No less than 4 cities in Vietnam are among the top 100 most popular destinations worldwide. In 2019 Ho Chi Minh reached the 30th place with 8.21 million tourists. According to Euromonitor, all foreign tourists with at least one overnight stay were counted.City | Tourists | Rank | Change |
---|---|---|---|
Ho Chi Minh | 8,208,000 | #30 | +14.0% |
Ha Long | 6,247,900 | #42 | +18.0% |
Ha Noi | 5,132,300 | #51 | +9.5% |
Da Nang | 2,880,800 | #83 | +15.0% |

Development of the tourism sector in Vietnam from 1995 to 2020
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Vietnam each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g. crew members of ships or flights are also not considered as tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.Data in the chart are given in millions of tourists. The red line represents the average of all 11 countries in Southeast Asia.

Revenues in tourism
In 2003, tourism revenues amounted to 1.40 billion USD, or about 3.5 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 2.43 million tourists at that time and roughly 576 USD per person. Within 17 years, the country's dependence on tourism has decreased substantially. In the last year of the survey, the revenue now amounts to 3.23 billion USD, accounting for 1.2 percent of the gross national product. Each visitor now spends an average of 842 USD for his holiday in Vietnam.
All data for Vietnam in detail
Year | Number | Receipts | % of GNP | Receipts |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | 3.84 m | 3.23 bn $ | 1.2 % | 842 $ |
2019 | 18.01 m | 11.83 bn $ | 4.5 % | 657 $ |
2018 | 15.50 m | 10.08 bn $ | 4.1 % | 650 $ |
2017 | 12.92 m | 8.89 bn $ | 4.0 % | 688 $ |
2016 | 10.01 m | 8.50 bn $ | 4.1 % | 849 $ |
2015 | 7.94 m | 7.35 bn $ | 3.8 % | 925 $ |
2014 | 7.87 m | 7.41 bn $ | 4.0 % | 941 $ |
2013 | 7.57 m | 7.25 bn $ | 4.2 % | 957 $ |
2012 | 6.85 m | 6.85 bn $ | 4.4 % | 1,000 $ |
2011 | 6.01 m | 5.71 bn $ | 4.2 % | 949 $ |
2010 | 5.05 m | 4.45 bn $ | 3.8 % | 881 $ |
2009 | 3.75 m | 3.05 bn $ | 2.9 % | 814 $ |
2008 | 4.24 m | 3.93 bn $ | 4.0 % | 928 $ |
2007 | 4.23 m | 3.75 bn $ | 4.8 % | 887 $ |
2006 | 3.58 m | 2.85 bn $ | 4.3 % | 795 $ |
2005 | 3.48 m | 2.30 bn $ | 4.0 % | 661 $ |
2004 | 2.93 m | 1.70 bn $ | 3.7 % | 581 $ |
2003 | 2.43 m | 1.40 bn $ | 3.5 % | 576 $ |
2002 | 2.63 m | |||
2001 | 2.33 m | |||
2000 | 2.14 m | |||
1999 | 1.78 m | |||
1998 | 1.52 m | |||
1997 | 1.72 m | |||
1996 | 1.61 m | |||
1995 | 1.35 m |
Our data on tourist numbers, revenues and expenditures are based on information from the World Tourism Organization. However, to ensure international comparability, the data for some years or countries were manually researched and corrected if they obviously included visitors without overnight stays. In these cases, the data were taken from the official communications of the respective national tourism authorities.
The WTO additionally points out that in some countries the number of tourists is only counted at airports, in others also at border crossings or even hotels. A comprehensive and reliable indication is therefore hardly possible in any country.