Across Southeast Asia, the Lunar New Year travel season is no longer just a time for homecomings and short getaways. From Singapore’s glittering skyline to Vietnam’s lantern lit streets, the holiday is becoming a moment when travelers from around the world reset their expectations of where to celebrate. Cheaper airfares, friendlier visa policies, and a desire for more authentic cultural experiences are pulling millions away from the traditional hubs and into new regional circuits. At the heart of this shift sit Singapore and Vietnam, two countries whose very different brands of Lunar New Year are redefining choices for global tourists.
From Homecoming Rush to Regional Playground
For decades, Lunar New Year predominantly meant migration in one direction: workers and students returning home, packed trains and buses, and urban centers emptying out. International tourism existed around the edges, mostly as short haul trips for regional travelers or luxury escapes for a small global elite. That pattern began to fracture after the pandemic, as pent up demand met flexible remote work, rising affluence in Asia, and airlines scrambling to rebuild networks. Lunar New Year became a prime testbed for new routes and new habits.
In 2024 and again in 2025, Chinese outbound travel over Lunar New Year recovered sharply, yet the picture looked very different from a decade ago. Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries benefited from surging demand, with travel analysts noting that traditional favorites such as Thailand lost ground while neighboring destinations rapidly gained share. For many Chinese, Korean and increasingly Western visitors, the question was no longer whether to travel, but which Southeast Asian city or beach would best capture the festive mood.
This shift has created a feedback loop. Governments across the region, awakened to the economic potential of the Lunar New Year window, have relaxed visa requirements, rolled out aggressive marketing campaigns, and competed on connectivity and value. As a result, what was once a largely domestic holiday for East Asia is now a truly regional high season, and decisions about where to spend it are more strategic and more global than ever.
Why Singapore Still Sets the Standard for Urban Lunar New Year
Singapore remains one of the most coveted urban destinations for Lunar New Year, especially among travelers seeking comfort, safety and spectacle. Chinatown’s New Year bazaars, light up events along the Singapore River, and elaborate lion dance performances across shopping malls and integrated resorts give visitors an easily accessible entry point into Chinese culture. The city’s strengths in logistics, public transport and hospitality keep it near the top of wish lists for families and older travelers wary of complexity.
Tourism data for 2024 and early 2025 shows Singapore’s recovery approaching, but not yet fully matching, pre pandemic levels. International arrivals climbed into the mid to high teens of millions annually, powered by business travel, major events and increasingly by regional holidaymakers over peak periods such as Lunar New Year. Analysts point out that Singapore’s visitor numbers are smaller than those of Malaysia or Thailand but its per capita spending is significantly higher, reflecting its premium positioning and strong shopping and dining sectors.
For global travelers, Singapore offers an appealing compromise during the Lunar holiday. It delivers festive atmosphere without the logistical challenges of navigating China’s huge domestic migration, and it pairs traditional rituals with polished attractions such as Gardens by the Bay, Sentosa and integrated casino resorts. The trade off is cost. During Lunar New Year, hotel rates climb steeply and restaurant bookings must be made weeks in advance, driving a segment of more price sensitive travelers to look elsewhere in the region.
Vietnam’s Tet Transformation into an International Draw
If Singapore is the polished classic, Vietnam is the rising star. Once seen primarily as a backpacker and budget destination, Vietnam has spent the past five years quietly repositioning itself as a versatile, mid market powerhouse. By 2024 the country had surpassed Singapore to become the third most visited destination in Southeast Asia, welcoming around 17.5 million international arrivals and nearly regaining its pre pandemic numbers.
Tet, Vietnam’s Lunar New Year, used to be regarded as a difficult period for tourists, with many shops closing, transport systems straining and cities emptying out. That perception is changing quickly. During the nine day 2025 Tet holiday, from January 25 to February 2, Vietnam’s tourism authority reported about 12.5 million domestic trips, a 19 percent rise year on year, and an increase of roughly 30 percent in international visitors. Major gateways such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Quang Ninh recorded strong double digit growth in arrivals and tourism revenue, showing that foreign travelers are increasingly willing to visit during the peak holiday instead of avoiding it.
Crucially, China has re emerged as a core market. In 2024, Chinese arrivals to Vietnam more than doubled from the previous year, reaching into the millions and making China one of the country’s largest source markets. Marketing agencies tracking flight data noted that Chinese bookings to Vietnam over Tet 2025 rose by around one third compared to the previous holiday and were significantly above pre pandemic levels. For these travelers, Vietnam offers a festive environment that feels familiar in language, food and customs, but significantly cheaper than popular urban centers in China or Singapore.
Shifting Regional Hierarchies and the Thailand Effect
The rise of Singapore and Vietnam as Lunar New Year hubs cannot be understood in isolation. It is part of a broader recalibration of tourism flows in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia and Vietnam surging forward and Thailand confronting a rare period of stagnation. In the first quarter of 2025, Vietnam attracted about 1.6 million Chinese tourists, outpacing Thailand’s 1.3 million Chinese arrivals for the first time. Analysts highlight that just a year earlier, Vietnam’s Chinese visitor numbers had been roughly half of Thailand’s, underscoring how fast sentiment has changed.
Several factors lie behind this shift. Safety concerns, fuelled by high profile incidents and online discussions among Chinese netizens, have dented Thailand’s long held reputation as the default Southeast Asian holiday choice. At the same time, visa waivers, targeted promotion and intensive airline route development have catapulted Vietnam and Malaysia up the rankings. Malaysia became the most visited country in Southeast Asia in early 2025, with more than 10 million international arrivals in the first quarter, while Vietnam’s overall arrivals surged and its recovery pace led the region.
For Lunar New Year travelers, these structural changes translate into new default options. Where Chinese families once reflexively booked Thailand for a beach and shopping break, many now weigh Hoi An, Phu Quoc, Da Nang or Nha Trang in Vietnam, as well as Kuala Lumpur or Penang in Malaysia, against Singapore’s urban comforts. The result is a more competitive regional market in which no single country can rely on habit alone to fill planes and hotels during the holiday.
Airlines, Visas and the New Singapore Vietnam Corridor
One of the most striking developments reshaping Lunar New Year choices is the rapid build out of air connectivity between Singapore, Vietnam and Chinese cities. Vietnamese carriers such as Vietjet and established Chinese airlines have added multiple direct routes linking Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and coastal destinations to second tier Chinese hubs like Chengdu, Xi’an, Guangzhou and others. This has dramatically reduced travel times and prices for holidaymakers who once needed to connect through Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong.
At the same time, Singapore’s Changi Airport remains a critical regional hub, funnelling passengers from Europe, North America and Australia into Southeast Asia during the Lunar season. Codeshare agreements between Singapore Airlines and Vietnam Airlines, due to take practical effect in late 2025, will deepen this corridor, giving travelers more seamless options to combine both countries in a single trip. For a growing number of international visitors, the ideal Lunar New Year itinerary is no longer a single stop but a loop that might begin in Singapore’s Marina Bay and end under the lanterns of Hoi An.
Visa policies amplify these shifts. Vietnam has expanded its e visa program and lengthened stays for several key markets, including European countries, while Malaysia and others have rolled out multi year visa exemptions for Chinese and Indian tourists. Singapore continues to rely on its longstanding reputation for efficiency and safety, with visa free or visa light access for many developed markets. Together, these initiatives lower the psychological and financial barriers to visiting multiple destinations during a single Lunar New Year break.
What Global Travelers Now Seek From Lunar New Year
The emerging Singapore to Vietnam axis also reflects deeper changes in what travelers want from Lunar New Year. Younger tourists, particularly from China, South Korea and the wider Asian diaspora, are increasingly comfortable celebrating the holiday away from home. They look for experiences that blend tradition with novelty: a temple visit followed by a rooftop bar, a family reunion lunch one day and a beachside fireworks show the next.
Vietnam’s Tet offers an immersion into living culture that many find compelling. Streets in Hanoi and Hue fill with flower markets, ancestral altars glow in homes and hotels, and historic sites host special performances. At the same time, international standard resorts in Da Nang, Phu Quoc and Nha Trang have refined their festive programming to match what travelers might expect in Singapore or Hong Kong, including gala dinners, kids’ clubs with holiday themed activities and curated excursions to local villages or craft centers. This mix of authenticity and comfort is particularly attractive to multi generational families.
Singapore, for its part, leans into its multicultural identity. Visitors can watch lion dances in Chinatown in the morning, enjoy Peranakan cuisine in Katong in the afternoon, and finish the night at Marina Bay’s waterfront celebrations. For Western travelers who may be encountering Lunar New Year for the first time, Singapore’s English speaking environment and orderly streets provide a gentle learning curve. The city becomes a gateway to the wider holiday traditions of Asia, encouraging repeat visitors to venture further afield on subsequent trips, often to Vietnam or Malaysia.
How the Trend Is Reshaping Itineraries Beyond Asia
The ripple effects extend far beyond the region. Data from major online travel agencies for the 2025 Lunar New Year period showed strong growth not only in travel within Asia, but also in inbound travel from markets such as the United States, Australia and Europe to destinations celebrating the holiday. Travelers who once associated Lunar New Year solely with Chinatowns in New York, London or Sydney are now planning long haul journeys to time their visits with the festival in Asia itself.
Singapore functions as a primary long haul gateway. Many European and North American visitors fly into Changi, spend a few days acclimatizing and experiencing the urban festivities, then hop to Vietnam for a more immersive cultural and scenic experience. This dual country pattern is increasingly visible in booking data and in the marketing materials of tour operators who now bundle Singapore and Vietnam in Lunar themed packages. Cruises around Southeast Asia are also tailoring itineraries to call at ports such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang during the peak days of the holiday.
In parallel, reverse flows are growing. Singaporeans and Vietnamese are themselves becoming more adventurous in their Lunar New Year travel. Affluent Singaporeans escape the city’s high prices and crowds by flying to Da Nang or Phu Quoc, while middle class Vietnamese families are testing international breaks to Singapore, Malaysia or Japan. Lunar New Year is evolving into a bidirectional, cross border holiday season, one in which the line between “host” and “guest” countries is steadily blurring.
What Travelers Should Expect in the Next Lunar New Year Cycle
Looking ahead to Lunar New Year 2026 and beyond, most regional tourism analysts expect the Singapore to Vietnam corridor to strengthen rather than fade. Vietnam aims for more than 23 million international visitors in 2025 and even higher numbers in subsequent years, supported by the phased opening of its new Long Thanh International Airport near Ho Chi Minh City. Singapore is banking on a pipeline of new attractions, meetings and events to keep visitor spending high, even when volumes trail those of its neighbors.
For travelers, this will mean more choice and more complexity. Air capacity between Chinese cities, Singapore and Vietnam is likely to continue expanding, especially around the holiday peak, but so will competition for the most attractive departure times and hotel categories. Visa regimes, while broadly liberalizing, can still change quickly. Travelers planning to experience Lunar New Year in the region would be wise to book earlier, build some flexibility into their itineraries, and consider splitting their stay between at least two hubs to capture different facets of the celebration.
The broader story is clear. Lunar New Year is no longer just a time when Asia turns inward and the rest of the world looks on from a distance. It is becoming a global travel season in its own right, reshaping tourism maps and expectations. From Singapore’s choreographed skyline to Vietnam’s surging Tet festivities, Southeast Asia is rewriting the script on how and where the holiday is celebrated. For tourists around the world, the question is no longer whether to travel for Lunar New Year, but which part of this dynamic region they most want to call their festive home away from home.