International search volume for Vietnam sharply increases

According to data from Google’s tourism trend monitoring tool, the search volume for travel to Vietnam has been continuously increasing, ranking among the top searches in the world. Specifically, Vietnam has risen from the 11th position to the current 6th position.

Vietnam is the only country in Southeast Asia to be among the top high-growth economies in the world, with a growth rate of 10% to 25%, ranking 6th globally. This rate is much higher than the overall growth rate of the Southeast Asian region (-10% to 10%).

Vietnam has received 7.8 million foreign visitors in the first eight months of this year, putting the country on track to fulfil its this year's 8 million target.

In August alone, international visitors to Vietnam reached 1.2 million, up 17.2% against the previous month, marking the second consecutive month when foreign tourist arrivals exceeded a million, according to the General Statistics Office.

So far, South Korea sent the highest number of visitors to Vietnam at 2.27 million, followed by China (almost 950,000) and the U.S. (502,000).

Nguyen Trung Khanh, head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said the new visa policy from Aug. 15 will help Vietnam attract more foreign visitors and enhance the competitiveness of the tourism industry.

There remains a lot of room for the tourism industry to spur its growth when it enters the peak international tourism season at the end of the year, he added.