HANOI, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam welcomed some 157,300 international arrivals in 2021, plunging 95.9 percent on year, mainly due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's General Statistics Office said Wednesday.
Foreign visitors entering the country by air accounted for 70.6 percent of the total, followed by road with 29 percent and sea routes with 0.4 percent. Most of the arrivals were from Asia (84.5 percent), according to the office.
In December alone, the country received some 17,200 international arrivals, up 14.2 percent against November following efforts to revive its tourism sector and resume commercial international flights.
Vietnam closed its border and grounded all international flights in March last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only allowing entry for Vietnamese repatriates, foreign experts and highly-skilled workers with certain quarantine requirements. In mid-November, it welcomed the first wave of quarantine-free international travelers in 20 months under a pilot tourism program.
The Southeast Asian country hosted just over 3.8 million international arrivals in 2020, plunging 78.7 percent from a record number of over 18 million in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 broke out, according to its General Statistics Office. Enditem