Vietnam leads global tourism growth in H1-2025

International tourist arrivals worldwide reached 690 million during the January-June period, up five percent from a year earlier and four percent above pre-COVID-19 levels, according to the latest edition of UN Tourism’s World Tourism Barometer.

In this positive global tourism context, Vietnam and Japan emerged as the top-performing destinations, each recording 21 percent growth, followed by Morocco with 19 percent, South Korea (15 percent), and Malaysia and Indonesia (both nine percent).

According to the National Statistics Office under Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance, the country welcomed nearly 10.7 million international arrivals in the first half of 2025, up 25.7 percent compared with the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

China was the largest among Vietnam’s top 10 source markets, followed in order by South Korea, Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, Cambodia, India, Australia, Malaysia, and Russia

Vietnam’s tourism industry has strongly rebounded beyond pre-pandemic levels, driven by visa relaxation policies, increased tourism promotion campaigns, and new flight routes to popular destinations, including Da Nang and Khanh Hoa, industry experts said.

Foreign arrivals reached 14 million in the first eight months of 2025, up nearly 22 percent year on year.

The tourism sector aims to welcome 22–23 million international visitors by the end of 2025, helping to achieve the country’s GDP growth target of 8.3-8.5 percent this year and supporting double-digit growth in the coming years, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said.