The number of foreign visitors to the Asia-Pacific region increased by 399% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2022 but was only 10.3% of the same period in 2019, according to the report released by the Asian Development Bank.
The report claims that the pace of tourism recovery has accelerated and could reach pre-Covid levels in 2024. The data
Data released by the General Statistics Office in December 2022 showed Vietnam received 3.66 million visitors in 2022 about 23.3 times higher than 2021 but only 20% of the 18 million it received in 2019, before the pandemic broke out.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has set a target of eight million visitors in 2023.
The report states that tourism recovery in Asia is majorly influenced by people's confidence in international travel, border reopening by various countries and their public health protocols.
Besides, the Russia-Ukraine conflict will pose a risk to Asian tourism industry along with rising fuel prices, leading to higher air fares and travel costs, the report added.
The report suggested that to accelerate recovery, economies in the Asia-Pacific need to promote cooperation, adopt policies to build resilience and sustainability in tourism and resolve pre-pandemic issues such as poor infrastructure.