Overseas Visa cardholders spent 776.4 million USD (16.4 trillion VND)
while visiting Vietnam in 2012, a 12.3 percent increase from the
previous year.
Overall, the total number of Visa transactions made
by overseas visitors surged 15.5 percent to 4.8 million in 2012,
according to the latest Visa Travel Snapshot Vietnam report.
Visitors from the United States recorded the highest amount of
spending at 2.1 trillion VND (99.9 million USD), a rise of 9.6 percent
from 1.9 trillion VND (91.2 million USD) in 2011. This was followed by
visitors from the Republic of Korea with 1.7 trillion VND (82.6
million USD) and Australia with 82.1 million USD.
“The
growing card usage among visiting travellers points to Vietnam gradually
becoming a more developed electronic payments market as foreign
travellers demonstrated a greater level of trust towards the payment
system in the country,” said Lorijon Bacchi, Visa country manager for
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.-VNA