In March 2026, data from the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism revealed that the number of European travelers visiting Vietnam fell sharply from the previous month. The cause was the closure of major transfer airports such as Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi due to the worsening Middle East situation. With soaring fuel costs compounding major route detours, a wave of trip cancellations followed, centered on Northern and Eastern Europe. Travelers from within Asia, meanwhile, all rose across the board, and Japanese visitors recorded a record 39% jump year on year. Vietnam's overall Q1 2026 total reached 6.76 million, setting a new record high.<\/p>\n
According to country-by-country visitor data for March 2026 released by the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, traveler numbers from major European countries were all sharply down year on year.<\/p>\n
It's notable that the Nordic and Eastern European countries show especially large drops. These countries often use the Middle East transit route that links Europe and Asia at the shortest distance (the so-called \"Gulf hub\" route), so they took the direct hit from the halting of airports such as Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n
From late February into March 2026, military tension between Israel and the U.S. and Iran ratcheted up further, and major Middle Eastern civilian airports were forced one after another into suspension or major cutbacks. Dubai International Airport in particular fell into a de facto total flight halt, and Emirates declared an indefinite suspension. Qatar Airways also canceled all Doha flights for several days.<\/p>\n
Many of the air routes linking Europe and Vietnam were structured to transit this \"Gulf hub.\" Emirates and Qatar Airways flights from London, Paris, and Frankfurt mostly routed to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City via Dubai or Doha. With these all going down at once, the means of direct access from Europe to Vietnam effectively vanished.<\/p>\n
What made things worse was the sudden spike in fuel costs. When aircraft fly southerly or northerly detour routes to avoid Middle Eastern airspace, flight times stretch by 2\u20133 hours and fuel consumption also rises sharply. This higher fuel cost is passed on to airfares, and the cost-performance of Vietnam travel worsened markedly for European travelers.<\/p>\n
In contrast to the plunge in the European market, visitor numbers from Asian countries all rose sharply.<\/p>\n
Japanese travelers' 39% rise is a growth rate that stands out even among Asian countries. Several factors converge behind it.<\/p>\n
First, it matters greatly that the Middle East turmoil had almost no effect. Direct flights from Japan to Vietnam are operated by multiple airlines, and direct routes to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang don't transit the Middle East. Even while European travelers struggled in this turmoil, Japanese travelers could travel to Vietnam as usual.<\/p>\n
Also, from April 28, 2026, Vietjet is set to newly launch a Hanoi\u2013Shizuoka route (Vietjet Hanoi\u2013Shizuoka route launch April 28<\/a>), and the expansion of direct flights from regional airports is lowering the hurdle to travel for Japanese even further. On top of that, the strong tourism environment\u2014Vietnam's Q1 2026 visitor numbers set a new record high\u2014is also driving travel appetite from Japan (Q1 2026 foreign visitor numbers set a record<\/a>\uff09\u3002<\/p>\n Vietnam's visitor numbers in March 2026 were 2 million, down 6.7% from February the prior month. The plunge from Europe pulled the overall figure down.<\/p>\n However, the first-quarter (January\u2013March) total reached 6.76 million, up 12% year on year, a record high on a quarterly basis. This is grounded in strong January and February performance, showing that Lunar New Year (Tet) demand and the early-year tourist season went smoothly.<\/p>\n This situation has aspects that are, if anything, an opportunity for Japanese travelers.<\/p>\n 1. Eased crowding at tourist spots<\/strong> 2. Stable hotel and flight prices<\/strong> 3. Middle East transit connections should be avoided<\/strong> For Vietnam travel from April onward, big events abound, such as Da Nang's Songkran festival (Da Nang Songkran Festival 2026<\/a>) and the Hue Festival (Hue Royal Cuisine Festival 2026<\/a>). As it enters a period when traveler numbers rise, arranging things early would be wise.<\/p>\n The Middle East situation's course remains uncertain, but some airlines are exploring resuming service via detour routes. Still, a recovery of Europe\u2013Vietnam flight numbers to normal levels presumes the full normalization of Middle Eastern airspace and is seen as taking at least several months.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the trend of rising travelers from Asia is sustained, and Vietnam's tourism industry is benefiting from a market-diversification standpoint. That the expansion of travelers from India, Indonesia, and Japan shows momentum more than making up for the temporary drop in the European market is an indicator of Vietnamese tourism's resilience.<\/p>\n The plunge in European travelers to Vietnam in March 2026 is a textbook case of geopolitical risk rippling into the tourism industry through air routes. The figures of Norway down 42% and Sweden down 37% laid bare the fragility of European travelers, who depend heavily on Middle East hubs. In contrast, the figure of Japanese travelers up 39% shows the strength of the direct-flight network and that Vietnam enjoys solid popularity in the Japanese market.<\/p>\n Travel from Japan to Vietnam is right now in a tailwind period. This spring, with the triple benefit of eased crowding, stable prices, and new route launches converging, could be called a perfect time for a Vietnam trip.<\/p>\n References and sources: 2026\u5e743\u6708\u3001\u30d9\u30c8\u30ca\u30e0\u3092\u8a2a\u308c\u308b\u6b27\u5dde\u304b\u3089\u306e\u65c5\u884c\u8005\u6570\u304c\u524d\u6708\u6bd4\u3067\u5927\u5e45\u306b\u843d\u3061\u8fbc\u3093\u3060\u3053\u3068\u304c\u3001\u30d9\u30c8\u30ca\u30e0\u56fd\u5bb6\u89b3\u5149\u7dcf\u5c40\u306e\u30c7\u30fc […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","ssp_meta_description":"2026\u5e743\u6708\u3001\u4e2d\u6771\u60c5\u52e2\u60aa\u5316\u3067\u6b27\u5dde\u304b\u3089\u30d9\u30c8\u30ca\u30e0\u3078\u306e\u65c5\u884c\u8005\u304c\u6025\u6e1b\u3057\u305f\u4e00\u65b9\u3001\u65e5\u672c\u4eba\u89b3\u5149\u5ba2\u306f\u524d\u5e74\u6bd439%\u5897\u306e\u8a18\u9332\u7684\u4f38\u3073\u3002\u5e02\u5834\u5225\u306e\u52d5\u5411\u3092\u89e3\u8aac\u3057\u307e\u3059\u3002","ssp_meta_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[29,229,270,49,287],"purpose":[],"keyword":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-1809","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-news","category-travel","tag-vietnam","tag-vietnam-travel","tag-vietnam-sightseeing","tag-japan","tag-latest-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2538,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1809\/revisions\/2538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"purpose","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purpose?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The impact on Vietnamese tourism overall: Q1 hit a record high, but March alone declined<\/h2>\n
The practical meaning for Japanese travelers<\/h2>\n
\nAt popular sights such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, and Da Nang, group travelers from Europe have temporarily decreased, so March\u2013April may be less crowded than usual. There's also local word that lines have grown shorter, especially at popular eateries for pho and banh mi and at local shops for spring rolls.<\/p>\n
\nWith demand from Europe down, occupancy at international hotels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City has dipped slightly, making it a time when even last-minute bookings can secure a relatively good room. That said, demand from Japan is up, so mid-range hotels popular with Japanese still require a booking.<\/p>\n
\nThis episode again showed the fragility of routes entering Vietnam from Japan via Europe or the Middle East. The Middle East situation remains fluid even now, and for travel from Japan we strongly recommend choosing direct flights.<\/p>\nThe outlook ahead: when will European flights recover?<\/h2>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
\n\u30fbVnExpress: Vietnam sees drop in European arrivals in March amid disruption in air travel<\/a>
\n\u30fbBloomberg: Middle Eastern airline suspensions spread after Iran's attack<\/a>
\n\u30fbACCESS Online: Vietnam flights canceled one after another amid Middle East airspace closures<\/a>
\n<\/small><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"