China resumes group tours to Vietnam

The Chinese authority has allowed the arrangement of group tours to Vietnam for Chinese tourists from March 15. The news was announced by Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam Peng Shituan during a meeting at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism last week.

This is the second phase of the northern neighbor’s pilot program for reopening outbound group tours. The first phase started on February 8, with China releasing a list of countries to which group tours were allowed. The list comprised 20 countries and territories, but it did not include Vietnam. Because of this policy, many Vietnamese tourism firms and airlines have had to postpone their business plans for the Chinese market.

The resumption of Chinese tourist group tours to Vietnam is expected to further boost the recovery of Vietnam’s international tourism segment, which was re-opened in mid-March 2022 after the country successfully contained the Covid-19 pandemic.

China is Vietnam’s largest source market for tourism, accounting for some 30% of international tourists to the country. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019, Vietnam receives about 5.8 million Chinese visitors.

According to figures of the General Statistics Office, international visitors to Vietnam in the first two months totaled over 1.8 million, 36.6 times higher than the year-ago period but just 60% of the pre-Covid 19 level.

Vietnam expects to welcome eight million international visitors this year. Last year more than 3.66 million international visitors arrived in the country, up 23.3-fold year-on-year.