Continuously welcoming international tourists by sea

In just the last two months of 2024, tens of thousands of international visitors came to Vietnam on international cruise ships.

Tens of thousands of international tourists coming to Vietnam by sea make this product line extremely vibrant - Photo: HL

Saigontourist Travel representative said that in the last two months of the year, the unit will welcome 7 trips. cruise ship, serving 2,600 international visitors to Vietnam.

This weekend, the unit welcomed and served the Celebrity Solstice cruise ship (Royal Caribbean) carrying more than 2,800 European, American, and Australian passengers to Vietnam, docking at Phu My port (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province).

In the following days, the ship will enter Chan May port (Hue) and dock at Ha Long port (Quang Ninh province). The ship is expected to leave Vietnam on the evening of November 13.

Also in November 2024, Saigontourist Travel will continue to welcome the Celebrity Solstice cruise ship to Ha Long - Chan May - Phu My port on the route from November 17 to 21 and from November 27 to 31.

By December 2024, the Spectrum of the Seas ship will bring 4,200 passengers to Nha Trang and the Mein Schiff 6 ship with 2,400 passengers will arrive in Ha Long.

It is expected that in the first 6 months of 2025, Saigontourist Travel will welcome 20 international cruise ships, especially serving many high-end tourists on the Azamara Onward, Azamara Pursuit... cruise ships to visit Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

After docking, the delegations international guests will select the most typical tourism products to visit in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, Tien Giang, Nha Trang, Hue, Ha Long, Hai Phong, Hanoi.

According to statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, of the total 14.1 million international arrivals to Vietnam in the first 10 months of this year, arrivals by sea reached 189,100, accounting for 1.3% and increasing by 172.3%. This is the highest growth figure compared to air and road.

Cruise passengers will visit the most typical tourism products - Photo: HL

However, in terms of absolute value, the number of passengers by sea is still modest, so the potential for this form is still very large.

In 2024, Vietnam tourism aims to have 17-18 million international visitors. With the number of visitors reaching more than 14.1 million in 10 months, businesses believe that the industry's target is not difficult to achieve when the whole country is in the peak season to welcome international visitors, the average number of more than 1.43 million visitors/month in the fourth quarter is completely feasible.

Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu - representative of Vietluxtour - said that the inbound tour market has improved a lot due to the positive impact of good promotional activities in the past year, the new visa policy is quite favorable, and the evaluation of destinations in the international market is also quite positive...

"We are currently entering the peak inbound tourism season in our target markets of Europe, Australia, the US, Northeast Asia...

Businesses expect the growth rate this year-end in mid-markets to be around 20-25% compared to the same period last year," Ms. Thu commented.

Source