Statistics site Numbeo recently ranked Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) fifth and 14th, respectively, in the safety index among 20 cities in Southeast Asia.

According to Numbeo's latest report, Hanoi's safety index is 62 while that of HCMC, the southern Vietnamese metropolis, was 47.4 points. According to the site, walking alone at night in HCMC "has a low level of safety".

Numbeo is the world's largest user-contributed database on cities and countries around the world. It specializes in assessing the quality of life in the world's cities, including their safety rankings. The site is the world's largest database on housing, crime, healthcare, traffic, and cost of living in hundreds of cities.

Foreign tourists on Hanoi’s street. Photo: Ho Ha/The Hanoi Times

Numbeo defined safety as "safety walking alone in daylight" and "safety walking alone at night". It measured the level of safety in 416 cities around the world based on public perceptions.

Chiang Mai City in Thailand is the safest city in Southeast Asia with 75.5 points. The world's least safe city was Caracas in Venezuela, where violence and murder have become notorious.

Hanoi has set a target to attract three million foreign tourists in 2023 while HCMC has made effort to lure five million foreign arrivals.

Last year, Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City have made it to the list of the best cities in Southeast Asia in Asia’s Best Awards 2022, by Travel & Leisure magazine.

Asia's Best Awards 2022 suggests destinations, resorts, and restaurants, among others, to try in the region. The lists were compiled based on votes from readers around the world between January and April last year.

The capital, Hanoi, offers a number of attractive products to attract tourists, such as night tours of Hoa Lo Prison and the ancient citadel of Thang Long; a wet market program in the northern mountains at the Vietnam National Ethnic Culture and Tourism Village in Son Tay Township; and touring the city of Hanoi on double-decker buses, among others.

The city aims to welcome more than 30 million visitors, 7 million of them foreigners, by 2025.