The average spending by tourists from China, the largest source of visitors to Vietnam, is much lower than that of other nationalities, according to a report by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
The 2018 Vietnam Tourism Annual Report said last year there were more than 4.9 million visitors from China, or 32 percent of all foreign arrivals.
Without saying how much various nationals spent per day on average, the report merely said spending by Chinese was estimated at 94.7 trillion VND (4 billion USD), or 24.7 percent of total tourism revenues.
A Chinese tourist thus spent 19 million VND (818 USD) on average during their visit while Koreans, who made up the second largest number of visitors, spent 26.3 million VND (1,100 USD) each.
There were 3.4 million Koreans, or 22.5 percent of all international arrivals, and they spent an estimated 92 trillion VND (3.96 billion USD), or 24 percent of total tourism revenues.
The report said tourists from Australia, Russia and the US spent a lot of money on average and had lengthy stays.
Australian tourists accounted for the highest average spending of 36.6 million VND (1,500 USD), followed by Russians with 33.9 million VND (1,460 USD) and Americans with 32.4 million VND (1,390 USD).
Last year Vietnam received 15.6 million foreign visitors, a year-on-year increase of 19.9 percent.
The country’s top ten source markets were China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the US, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, and the UK, which accounted for 83 percent of all arrivals and 78 percent of tourism revenues.
Last year tourism revenues were worth more than 637 trillion VND (27.44 billion USD) with 60.1 percent coming from international tourists and the rest from domestic tourists.
In the first half of this year, Asia remained the largest source market for the tourism sector, accounting for 77 percent of foreign arrivals in Vietnam, according to the General Statistics Office.
Tourists from Europe and the US accounted for 14 percent and 6 percent respectively.
The number of international visitors totalled 8.5 million, up 7.5 percent year-on-year.
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