Russian tourist arrivals to Vietnam nearly triple in 2025

The country closed 2025 with a record 21.2 million international arrivals, surpassing the 2019 peak by nearly 18 percent.

According to VNAT, the overall performance was driven by broad-based growth across multiple markets, with arrivals from India rising 48.9 percent, Cambodia 44.8 percent, China 41.3 percent, and Japan 14.4 percent compared with 2024.

Russia stood out as the fastest-growing source market.

With 689,714 arrivals, Russian visitors to Vietnam in 2025 rose 196.9 percent year on year, nearly tripling the 2024 figure of 232,300 and surpassing the previous record of 646,500 set in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

VNAT said Vietnam has emerged as a leading destination for package tours in 2025, supported by favorable visa policies and an expanded flight network.

The rapid resumption of charter and package flights from Moscow and other major Russian cities to key resort hubs such as Cam Ranh and Phu Quoc has played a crucial role in driving this growth.

For Russian travelers, Vietnam is increasingly positioned as a competitive alternative in the all-inclusive resort segment, combining year-round warm weather, family-friendly offerings, and reasonable costs.

These advantages are reshaping winter travel preferences, gradually replacing traditional European destinations.

AdTech reshapes Vietnam’s tourism promotion

Industry experts said the surge also reflects the growing role of advertising technology (AdTech) in reshaping tourism promotion and attracting high-intent foreign travelers.

Nguyen Thi Diem Thu, an AdTech strategy and business development expert, said the tourism boom reflects the expanding use of advertising technology in attracting international visitors to Vietnam.

In the past, tourism marketing often relied on mass campaigns by season or by country.

By 2025, however, modern AdTech infrastructure has enabled industry stakeholders to move beyond conventional demographic targeting and focus instead on behavioral and contextual signals.

By identifying users searching for warm-weather winter destinations, long-stay resort packages or wellness tourism, AdTech has functioned as a highly precise filtering tool.

This behavior-based targeting ensures that Vietnam’s tourism offerings reach high-potential segments, such as families or wellness-focused travelers seeking 10- to 28-day stays, well before booking decisions are made.

Reaching travelers already inclined toward premium experiences in destinations such as Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and Da Nang helps ensure that visitors arriving in Vietnam are better aligned with demand and spending potential.

“Vietnam’s tourism policy has repeatedly emphasized the need to shift from a volume-based model to increasing value per visitor,” Thu said.

“AdTech has become one of the most effective tools to implement this strategy, enabling market diversification without doubling marketing budgets, while optimizing promotion based on traveler intent rather than passports.”

Building on the momentum of 2025, she said success in 2026 will depend on Vietnam’s ability to further remove friction along the visitor journey, from interoperability among digital payment gateways to seamless online services, ensuring that global travel intent is converted into real economic value for the Southeast Asian country.