Foreign tourists in downtown HCMC, January 2025. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

The hospitality industry has seen positive signs in the first half of this year thanks to visa relaxations, increased flight connections and infrastructure improvements, experts said.

In the first five months of the year occupancy was up 13.2% year-on-year and RevPAR, or revenue per available room, rose by 16.5%, global hotel operator IHG Hotels & Resorts said in a recent report.

“Bolstered by an increase in flight connectivity, and the relaxation of visa policies, Vietnam’s appeal to international visitors is showing in many ways,” Vivek Bhalla, managing director, Southeast Asia & Korea, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said.

“We’ve seen a 47% increase in leisure travelers from China, and a 10% year-on-year increase in long lead business for IHG.”

A report by market research firm Knight Frank Vietnam showed that in the first half of the year HCMC hotels saw a slight increase in rents but occupancy rates improved markedly, rising to almost pre-pandemic levels.

The average price of a luxury hotel room was US$152 per night, up 2.5% from a year earlier.

Son Hoang, deputy director of Knight Frank Vietnam, said Vietnam’s hotel industry is benefiting from the increase in direct air services from Europe, the Middle East and India and relaxed visa policies.

Vietnam earlier this month announced to waived visas for citizens from another 12 countries, raising the number of countries benefiting from its visa waivers to 39, including major economies in Asia like Japan and South Korea, and in Europe like France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K.

The country will also exempt visa for billionaires, scholars, experts, scientists, university professors, chief engineers, and high-quality digital technology professionals, according to a decree issued on Aug. 8.

Source: VN EXPRESS