Ho Chi Minh City, March 3, 2026 – The Outbox Company, a leading Asia-based market research and data analytics firm specializing in tourism and hospitality, officially announces the release of its latest report, Vietnam Travel Landscape 2026: From Recovery to Resilience. 

Drawing on in-depth analyses of both domestic and international markets, alongside proprietary datasets and indices from the Outbox Intelligence system, the report provides a comprehensive assessment of Vietnam’s tourism performance in 2025. It also identifies critical strategic priorities to sustain and strengthen the country’s competitive position in 2026 and beyond.

According to the report, 2025 marked the completion of the industry’s post-pandemic recovery phase, with Vietnam welcoming over 21 million international arrivals—nearly 20% higher than pre-pandemic levels. However, amid rising geopolitical uncertainty, currency volatility, and intensifying regional competition, this recovery has also exposed structural limitations and inherent risks within the current growth model. These dynamics underscore the urgent need for a more sustainable medium- and long-term development approach.

Key findings include:

• Growth concentrated within traditional Northeast Asian “comfort zones”: Vietnam’s inbound market structure remains highly concentrated and largely unchanged from the pre-pandemic period. The top five source markets—China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States—consistently account for approximately 55% of total international arrivals. Notably, China’s reopening has been the single largest growth driver, contributing 5.3 million arrivals in 2025, up 41.3% year-on-year and representing the largest absolute increase across all markets. While this structure accelerated short-term recovery, it also heightens vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations, visa policy shifts, and geopolitical disruptions.

• Strong visitor growth, but limited value creation per traveler: In 2025, total tourism revenue reached approximately USD 39 billion, up 27% compared to 2019. Yet during 2024–2025, revenue growth was driven largely by the rapid increase in international arrivals, while average value per visitor showed a downward trend. This suggests that Vietnam continues to operate as a high-volume, low-yield destination, raising concerns about pricing power and economic efficiency in the next phase of growth.

• Domestic tourism – A stable pillar yet strategically underleveraged: Even as international arrivals reached record highs, domestic tourism contributed an estimated USD 17–20 billion, representing 43–51% of total industry revenue in 2025. This reinforces its role as the most stable and reliable revenue source for Vietnam’s tourism sector. In the post-recovery phase, the domestic market presents a strategic opportunity to pilot product upgrades, enhance customer experience, and refine pricing structures. Leveraging this segment more effectively can help lay the groundwork for sustainable, value-driven growth across the entire industry.
• Vietnam’s destination brand: High awareness, limited depth: Vietnam’s Destination Brand Strength Index reached 128.1 in 2025, above the neutral threshold but still below the regional average of 147.4. While metrics for familiarity (160.8) and overall appeal (179.3) remain strong, indicators reflecting brand depth—such as knowledge and propensity to visit—lag behind. This gap suggests that while Vietnam enjoys high visibility, it has yet to cultivate sufficiently distinctive positioning to drive deeper emotional attachment and loyalty. This is further reflected in a relatively modest Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 24.2. Moving forward, enhancing service quality, safety standards, and end-to-end journey consistency will be critical to strengthening brand equity and long-term pricing power.

The full report and in-depth analyses are available here.

Travel market research company The Outbox Company unveils “Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior” Outbox Capture. It provides data and information on behaviors and psychology of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese outbound tourists in the coming time.

Introduction

South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are three of the markets with a large and continuously increasing number of visitors to Vietnam in the period 2015 – 2019. As international tourism resumed, and in order to know more about these big markets, Outbox conducted the Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior report.

According to the survey results, tourists from these three countries have a quite low level of awareness about the Vietnamese destination image. It means they haven’t known or been strongly impressed by Vietnam. From the data, Outbox expects to help businesses and destinations in Vietnam come up with new approaches to attract Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists. The target is to welcome 8 million foreign visitors in 2023.

Key content

The similarities of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese markets

According to statistics, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are among the top countries with the most outbound tourists in the world. South Korea has the largest number of outbound travelers, followed by Japan and Taiwan, respectively. In 2019, more than 28.7 million Koreans traveled abroad, of which 4.3 million chose to visit Vietnam.

Asian destinations (including Vietnam) are always on the list of favorites of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists. In 2019, before the pandemic, Vietnam ranked second in the top destinations for Korean tourists, just behind Japan due to expansion of flight routes, near distance and low costs. Another similarity of the three markets is the high spending of outbound tourists. Spending levels in all three countries increased evenly, averaging about 7% per year.

Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese outbound travel behaviors

More than 40% of outbound travelers from the three countries choose standard hotels (2-3 stars). They search for information at travel websites/blogs or search online. Safety is the top factor affecting their decision to go abroad. While Korean tourists are concerned about accommodations, the Japanese want their experiences worth their money, and Taiwanese tourists especially care about transport.

Compared to Japan and South Korea, the travel sentiment of Taiwanese tourists remains low. The long pandemic and strict restrictions have partly affected their psychology. Outbox’s survey shows that although 36.4% of Taiwanese tourists are willing to pay more for travel, 40.7% plan to cut travel spending to save for health care. Simultaneously, more than 40% of Korean and Japanese tourists are willing to raise their budgets for overseas trips in the coming times.

More details can be found at “Korean – Japanese – Taiwanese outbound travel behavior” Outbox Capture by The Outbox Company.