Over 96 percent came to the country in the first quarter, before social distancing measures were imposed.
As the country has yet to reopen to international tourists, most foreign arrivals since the second quarter have been experts and skilled personnel working in projects in the country.
For the year as a whole, foreign visitors coming by air accounted for 80.3 percent of the total, down 78.6 percent against 2019, by road down 81.9 percent, and by sea down 45.2 percent.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said the country holds many advantages from bringing COVID-19 under control quickly. Domestic travel stimulus programmes have been widely promoted to realise the twin targets of fighting the outbreak and recovering the economy.
Online tourism marketing and communications increased due to the pandemic, it noted, adding that it will boost investment in e-marketing and cooperation with major tech firms around the world to apply the most modern technologies in the tourism sector./.
