Hotel and flight searches by Indian travelers to Vietnam surged nearly four-fold against pre-pandemic levels, with Vietnamese carriers racing to launch more direct flights to tap into the world’s most populous country.
Data from online booking travel site Agoda showed searches for Vietnam by Indian tourists between January 2019 to mid-May in 2023 grew more than for Southeast Asian neighbors like Thailand (147%), Singapore (215%) and Indonesia (256%), CNBC reported.
The launch of a series of direct routes in recent years has made Vietnam a top pick among Indian travelers.
Before 2019, there were no direct flights from India to Vietnam. In 2019, Vietjet became the first Vietnamese carrier to operate a direct service to India, one of Vietnam’s growing tourism markets before the pandemic.
Last year, Vietnam Airlines launched direct services between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and New Delhi, becoming the second Vietnamese carrier to fly to India.
Vietnam received 137,000 Indian tourists in 2022.
About 200,000 Indians visited Vietnam in 2019.
