A sharp rise in tourists from the Chinese mainland helped drive Vietnam to a record 21.2 million international arrivals in 2025, as post-pandemic travel patterns continued to reshape Southeast Asia’s tourism landscape.
Chinese visitors accounted for about 25 percent of all foreign arrivals to Vietnam last year, or more than 5.28 million tourists, according to media outlets citing the country’s National Statistics Office. The figure marked a 41 percent increase from the previous year and made China Vietnam’s largest source market for international tourism.
The year also saw Vietnam overtake Thailand as the top destination for Chinese travellers in the region, with the Southeast Asian kingdom suffering a whopping 33 percent decline in Chinese visitors amid kidnapping concerns and regional tensions, and a 7.23 percent drop overall.
[See more: Here’s what to know before you go to Vietnam]
The surge in Chinese arrivals came despite Beijing and Hanoi’s historically complex relationship, marked by territorial disputes in the South China Sea and periodic diplomatic tensions. While the two communist neighbours maintain strong economic ties and deep people-to-people links, political frictions have at times affected public sentiment – leading to anti-China protests in Vietnam in 2011, 2014 and 2018.
According to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, Vietnam currently ranks among the world’s fastest-growing tourism destinations. The Southeast Asian nation has been proactively luring visitors through the likes of visa-free stays for citizens of many European countries and South Korea, though this policy does not apply for those of China.
South Korea ranked second among Vietnam’s source markets, sending about 4.33 million visitors in 2025, while Russian arrivals rose by almost 200 percent compared with 2024. Overall the country’s international arrivals rose 20 percent year-on-year, surpassing a pre-pandemic peak of 18 million recorded in 2019.
