Statistics provided by Visa International show that travellers to Vietnam in the last months of 2005 spent 28% year on year.

According to Visa Asia Pacific, total spending on Visa cards in the fourth quarter was VND1.4tril ($90.6mil), an increase of 28% over the same period in 2004. Travellers from the US, Japan, Australia, Republic of Korea and France proved to be the biggest spenders, accounting for 58% of the total. They used Visa cards to pay for accommodations (29%), travel (11%), shopping (16%) food and drink (7%) and entertainment (4%).
The statistics showed that average spending per transaction was VND2.59mil. Canadians spent the most, at VND3.58mil for every transaction, followed by the Norwegians (VND3.524mil) and tourists from Hong Kong. Travellers preferred giftshops, postcard shops and toy shops, where they spent VND63.5bil ($4mil), craft shops shops, where they spent VND34bil (2.1mil) and souvenir shops, where they spent  VND30.9bil, or $1.9mil.
Yet the figures also showed that total spending by travellers in Vietnam was small compared to total spending in the Asia Pacific region, which reached $6.5bil in the fourth quarter of 2005.
India, for example, reaped $372mil from the traveller spending, the highest rate in the area. Following were Australia ($1.1bil), China ($784mil), Thailand ($783mil), Hong Kong ($647mil) and Japan ($452mil).
Vietnam hopes to receive 3.6-3.8mil of foreign travellers in 2006. In 2005, the country received 3.4mil tourists, an increase of 17% over 2004. The majority of travellers came from East Asian countries, China, the US and the Republic of Korea.
A survey by the Ministry of Trade showed that on average, an international tourist of higher income spends $300-700 in Vietnam, while tourists of average income spend $100-150 per person per day. The figure paled in comparison to Thailand, at $1,200-1,500 per person per day, and Singapore, at $1,500-2,000 per person per day.

(Source: Vietnam Net)