In the early 1990s Việt Nam began to encourage tourism as part of its general policy of liberalisation. In the years which followed visitor numbers rose rapidly from just 250,000 in 1990 to 1 million in 1994, increasing to 1.6 million in 1996.

Việt Nam’s developing tourist industry was hit badly by the regional economic crisis of 1997-8, but international arrivals recovered quickly, increasing to 1.78 million in 1999, 2.1 million in 2000 and 2.6 million in 2002. By that year the country had emerged as one of South East Asia's fastest-growing tourist attractions, its attractiveness enhanced in the wake of 9:11 by the October 2002 declaration of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy that Việt Nam was the safest destination in the region for travel.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003 had a devastating impact on the tourism industry throughout East Asia, with visitor numbers throughout the region falling by some 15 per cent over the previous year. While still recovering from this setback, southern China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Việt Nam were hit by an outbreak of avian influenza. However, the overall drop in visitor numbers in Việt Nam was offset by the large number of foreign visitors attending the 22nd South East Asian Games (SEA Games) in late 2003, with the result that the total number of international arrivals during that year still reached 2.42 million, a reduction of just 8 per cent over the previous year’s figures. Despite continuing bird flu problems in 2004, tourist numbers reached a total of 2,927,876 international arrivals. The number of foreign tourists visiting Việt Nam has since increased year by year, reaching 3,467,757 in 2005, 3,583,486 in 2006 and 4,171,564 in 2007

In 2007 the top 10 national visitor groups to Việt Nam, in descending order, were Chinese (558,719), South Koreans (475,535), Americans (412,301), Japanese (411,557), Taiwanese (314,026), Australians (227,300), French (182,501), Thais (160,747), Cambodians (150,655) and Malaysians (145,535).

Nationals of several ASEAN countries are entitled to enter Việt Nam for a 30-day period without a visa. In 2004 visa exemption was also granted to Japanese and Korean citizens, a development aimed at bringing about a further increase in visitor numbers from those two countries.

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