Vietnam's Tourism Steadily Recovers: Cultural Innovation Drives Growth

(Hanoi, 10th, Comprehensive Report) According to the Vietnam News Agency, despite the turbulent and challenging global situation, Vietnam's tourism industry still achieved 21% growth in 2025, demonstrating strong resilience and recovery capability. This achievement is attributed to the removal of a series of policy and institutional “bottlenecks,” including the improvement of visa policies, support for enterprise development, and innovative tourism promotion methods, especially the close integration of culture, cinema, and digital media with tourism.

In 2025, the Vietnamese tourism industry intensified its publicity efforts in key global markets and actively participated in large international tourism exhibitions, with notable results. Digital media promotion made breakthroughs, with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism's official website, vietnam.travel, rising to second place in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the tourism industry is developing new products such as night tourism, medical tourism, rural tourism, golf tourism, and culinary tourism, extending tourists' stays and increasing consumption levels.

Data show that Vietnam’s tourism industry achieved about 135.5 million domestic tourist visits and nearly 21.2 million international tourist arrivals for the first time, with total tourism revenue exceeding 1 quadrillion VND, making it an important driving force for the national economy.

Looking forward to 2026, the goal for Vietnam's tourism industry is to receive 25 million international tourists, 150 million domestic tourists, and achieve tourism revenue of 1.1 quadrillion VND (about 43 billion USD). Nguyen Trung Khanh, Director General of the National Tourism Administration, said that the focus will be on developing key product ecosystems such as cultural tourism, natural ecological tourism, marine and island tourism, and urban sightseeing tourism, while also promoting smart tourism, green tourism, and innovative tourism products such as philanthropic tourism, film location sightseeing, agritourism, and virtual reality tourism.

Nguyen Trung Khanh pointed out that various localities and enterprises are investing in the development of high-end tourism and specialized products for specific groups, including products dedicated for Muslim tourists. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is also accelerating the introduction of new products that combine cultural industries with tourism, and is working with the Ministry of Health to develop a medical tourism system, aiming to enhance visitor experience and increase consumption levels.