Most of the foreigners came to the capital for diplomatic or working purposes. The average occupation rate of local hotels was estimated at over 19.26 percent, up 6.46 percent from April. Between January and May, Hanoi’s tourism sector earned nearly 715 million USD, a deep reduction compared to the same period last year. However, it was still an encouraging figure, as both the country’s and global economies have been impacted by the pandemic. To boost the local market, tourism businesses have been requested to launch programmes to stimulate tourism demand, improve services quality, and apply more technological advances in management. International tourist arrivals to Vietnam in the first five months of this year totalled 3.7 million while the number of domestic holidaymakers stood at 16 million, down 50 percent and 58.5 percent, respectively, from the same period last year./.