Vietnamese Tourism: An overview.
Following the implementation of economic reforms, the v etnamese economy has grown significantly over the last decade achieving an average annual growth rate of over seven percent Tourism. a relatively new industry in Vietnam, has benefited from this growth and developed rapidly. Tourism. a messenger of peace, friendship, and cooperation between countries, provides considerable socioeconomic benefit In Vietnam, tourism b contributed both to socioeconomic development and to better of the previously divided country. Recognizing tourism's importance, the Vietnamese has recognized that "developing tourism is a signif socioeconomic development policy in order to implement national industrialization and modemization" (Communist Party of Vietnam. 2001) Despite the Asian economic crisis in the late-1990s and the negative effects of SARS and the bird flu, Vietnam tourism has developed and grown substantia Total foreign visitors to vietnam increased from 21 million 2000 to 3.6 million in 2006 a 67 percent increase, or nine percent per annum. Most tourists come from Vietnam's key markets of Northeast Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the same period, domestic tourism also exploded, from .6 to 234 million visitors (General statistics office of 2007)