Illustrative image (Source: VNA)NewYork (VNA) – Vietnam has been named among the top ten hotdestinations for US travelers in 2019 by the US Tour Operators Association(USTOA).
In an article themed “Where will U.S. travelers explore in 2019? Top trends,destinations and anniversaries” published on USA TODAY, USTOA mentioned Italy as the most popular destination fortravelers in 2019.
“The top 10 hot destinations for the coming yearalso included Iceland, which ranked second. It was followed by Japan,Vietnam, Australia, France, Spain, Colombia, Cambodia and Portugal,” itsaid.
The ranking was based on a recent survey conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the tour operator members of the USTOA.
Vietnam has also entered the list of the top 10 off-the-beaten path or emergingdestinations by USTOA members. Iceland again ranked first and Cambodia came insecond. Other destinations are Croatia, Colombia, Portugal, Bhutan, Bolivia,Myanmar and Ethiopia.
“It’s interesting to see five destinations – Iceland, Cambodia, Colombia,Vietnam and Portugal – appear on both the hot destinations and emerging destinationslists,” says Terry Dale, President and CEO of USTOA.
“This tells us that off-the-beaten path travel experiences continue to grow inpopularity,” he said.
In a recent Booking.com survey, 45 percent of21,500 global travelers said they want to be more adventurous in their choiceof destinations in 2019 than they were in 2018.
About 82 percent of USTOA’s members are offeringart and culture travel experiences. The art and culture category was thehighest ranked experiential tour type last year based on sales volume.
In 2018, Vietnam is estimated to serve some 15.5 million-15.6million foreign tourists and 80 million domestic travellers, generating 620trillion VND (26.66 billion USD) in tourism revenue.
The number of international tourist arrivalssurged three-fold from 5 million in 2010 to over 15 million in 2018.
Also this year, the country has won a series of international awards,recognising it as a safe and friendly destination. Vietnam was named the“Asia’s Leading Destination” for the first time at the 2018 World Travel Awardsin Hong Kong this September. Two months later, it was honoured with the titleof “Asia’s best golf destination in 2018” at the Golf World Travel Awards.
In 2019, Vietnam expects to welcome some 103million visitors, including around 18 million foreigners and 85 milliondomestic travellers, up 15 percent and 6 percent, respectively, from 2018.
The sector is hoped to contribute more than 10 percent of GDP and create 6million jobs, including 2 million direct jobs. At the same time, it expects toserve 32 million foreign tourists and more than 130 million domestic visitorsin 2025.–VNA
