The number of European visitors to Vietnam dropped sharply in March, as the Middle East crisis led to the temporary closure of several major transit airports and drove up fuel costs.
Vietnam received only two million visitors in March, a 6.7% decline from February — a 28-day month that also featured the 9-day Lunar New Year holiday — according to data from the General Statistics Office.
The steepest falls were from Norway (42%), Poland (38%), Sweden (37%), Denmark (26%), the Czech Republic (23%), and Switzerland (21%).
Foreign tourists on Nguyen Hue flower street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City during the Lunar New Year, February 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran |
Tourism insiders pointed to the disruptions to major aviation hubs en route, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Jeddah, and Muscat.
The rising fuel costs as a result of the war also dissuaded travel.
But there were increasing visitor numbers from several Asian markets like Japan (up 39%), Indonesia (34%), Thailand (26%), Laos (25%), Singapore (23%), India (19%), and China (4%).
There were 6.76 million visitors in the first quarter, up 12% year-on-year and the highest quarterly figure ever.
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