Vietnam wins award as Asia's leading tourist destination

By Nguyen Quy October 21, 2021 | 02:10 pm GMT+7

Tourists row kayak in Ha Long Bay, 2019. Photo by Shutterstock/Jimmy Tran Vietnam has beaten eight other rivals to win the title "Asia’s Leading Destination" at the 2021 World Travel Awards.

Its competitors are China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

UNESCO heritage site Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh was also named Asia's leading tourist attraction.

Since its recognition as a UNESCO natural world heritage in 1994, Ha Long Bay has found a spot on the global tourism map, with travel bloggers and filmmakers hailing its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone pillars topped by rainforests.

The bay helped Quang Ninh welcome 14 million tourists, including 5.7 million foreigners, in 2019, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year.

Van Don, Vietnam's first private airport, in Quang Ninh also won Asia’s leading airport title. Inaugurated in December 2018, the VND7.5 trillion airport lies 50 kilometers from Ha Long Bay.

The results were based on votes cast by travel industry professionals and the public.

World Travel Awards was first launched in 1993 to acknowledge excellence in the travel and tourism industry.

It has been heralded the "travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars" by The Wall Street Journal.