About 3.8 million international guests entered Vietnam in the first ten months of 2020, down 73.8% from a year earlier, as the country keeps banning foreign entry to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They were mainly expats, diplomats, business executives and highly-skilled laborers. 

A latest report from the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that 14,800 foreigners have arrived in Vietnam in October, down 99.1% year-on-year, compared to 13,769 arrivals in September.

Source: GSO. Chart: NM

Between January and October, international arrivals by air dropped 73.4% year-on-year to around 3.06 million, while 593,935 came by road, down 78.5%, and those arriving by sea decreased by 32.2% to 144,603.

In the first ten months of this year, Asian visitors still accounted for lion's share of tourist inflows, with nearly 2.78 million, down 75.8% over the same period last year. 

Visitors from Europe fell 62% to 669,484 while arrivals from the Americas plunged 70.8% to nearly 235,597, mostly from the US. Around 102,624 visitors came from Oceania, down 72.1% while those from Africa numbered 12,301, down 68.3%.