Tourism sector impacted by coronavirus, Vietnam sees number of foreign visitors declines in Feb

Among Vietnam’s major source markets, China reported the sharpest decline of 62.4%. In addition, the number of U.S. visitors plunged 24.4%; Australians, 19.1%; Singaporeans, 18.9%; and Canadians, 16.4%.

According to the Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, more than 1.2 million international tourists visited Vietnam last month, tumbling 37.7% over January and 21.8% against the same month last year.

The plunge is predictable as the tourism sector has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Thanh Nien Online newspaper reported.

Related: Recommendations to Vietnam’s Government to reduce the impact of coronavirus to tourism sector

According to a report by The Saigon Times Daily, in the first two months of the year, Vietnam welcomed over 3.2 million foreign guests, up 4.8% year-on-year, due to the high number of tourists from India, Thailand, Taiwan and Russia in January.

In the coming months, the coronavirus spread will continue hitting the local tourism sector. The number of tourists from China and South Korea, which accounted for 56% of Vietnam’s total foreign tourists last year, may plunge by 90% this year.

According to local travel firms, thousands of customers have canceled their tours. However, customers are still taking tours to the United States.

Vietnam’s Tugo travel firm has noted that the number of customers buying tours to the United States has even increased.

A representative of Vietravel shared this view, stating that flights stateside are still being run regularly. The company has let their customers transit airports in areas that have not been hit by the coronavirus