Vietnam crossed 21 million international arrivals for the first time in 2025 — and Hanoi grew faster than the nation: 7.82 million international visitors, up 22.7%, on the strength of China’s return, Russia’s tripling and India’s direct-flight surge.
Vietnam welcomed 21.17 million international visitors in 2025 — up 20.4% and the first crossing of the 21-million mark — beating the pre-pandemic 2019 peak by 18%. Hanoi took 33.7 million visitors overall (+20.8%), of whom 7.82 million were international (+22.7%).
The momentum carried into 2026: 2.5 million arrivals in January alone — the highest single month ever — and Hanoi targeting 9 million international visitors for the year.
China leads Vietnam’s source markets with 5.28 million (+41.3%, back to 91% of 2019), then South Korea 4.33 million, Taiwan 1.23 million, the US 849,000 and Japan 814,000.
Hanoi’s mix skews toward the growth stories: India (746,480, +48.9% on new direct routes) concentrates on Hanoi and Ninh Binh, while Russia’s near-tripling to 689,714 lifts the city’s heritage circuit alongside the Ha Long–Ninh Binh loop.
Visa liberalization did the heavy lifting: 45-day exemptions and 90-day e-visas produced double-digit growth across Europe — France +21.2%, UK +20.3%, Poland +42.6%.
Hanoi layers its own draw on top: the Hoan Kiem pedestrian zone, night-tourism programs, and the A50/A80 anniversary summits that filled the city twice in 2025. The 2026 target: VND 160 trillion in city tourism revenue.
Hanoi’s arrivals engine runs on policy, not beaches: visa waivers, restored capacity and a national marketing blitz that made Vietnam the region’s standout while Thailand stumbled. The capital’s 22.7% international growth outruns the national rate because the new-wave markets — India, Russia, Poland — are exactly the ones that start their trips at Hoan Kiem. Watch the composition shift: as China normalizes at five million-plus, Hanoi’s pricing will hinge less on volume and more on who books the lakefront suites.
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