Sa Pa: A decade from the Fansipan cable car to Asia’s fastest tourism growth

Sa Pa’s rapid rise on Asia’s tourism map

In early 2026, the online travel platform Agoda ranked Sa Pa among Asia’s fastest-growing destinations in 2025. Based on a comparison of international search and booking data from January to November 2025 against the same period in 2024, the “town in the mist” surged 15 places in the ranking of Asia’s top 100 destinations. Following Sa Pa on the list were Okayama, Matsuyama and Takamatsu in Japan, as well as Bandung in Indonesia.

According to Vu Ngoc Lam, Country Director of Agoda Vietnam, Sa Pa has become increasingly popular among international travelers thanks to its relaxing resort experiences and fresh mountain air. Agoda representatives also noted that Sa Pa’s continued rise in global rankings is a positive signal for Vietnam’s tourism industry as a whole.

Four seasons of blooms as Sa Pa’s mountains and forests captivate visitors.

Sa Pa’s remarkable rise has not come by chance. The highland town has long been a tourism icon of northern Vietnam, blessed with dramatic mountain landscapes, a cool year-round climate and the rich cultural heritage of its ethnic communities. Each season brings a distinct beauty, often marked by signature blooms. Yet for many years, these natural endowments were only enough to position Sa Pa as an experience-driven destination, without generating significant momentum in terms of visitor volume or travel frequency.

Just over a decade ago, Fansipan was still largely the preserve of trekking enthusiasts, with multi-day climbs that demanded considerable physical endurance and time. In 2012, Sa Pa welcomed just over 500,000 visitors for the entire year, with an average length of stay of fewer than two days. Before 2015, total tourism revenue across Lao Cai Province amounted to only a few trillion Vietnamese dong, clearly underscoring the limitations of a tourism model heavily dependent on seasonality and accessibility.

The record-breaking Fansipan cable car takes visitors to the “Roof of Indochina” in just 15 minutes.

Infrastructure-led transformation and the emergence of a tourism ecosystem

The turning point came as Sa Pa began to benefit from more substantial investment in tourism infrastructure and products. Since 2016, when the Fansipan cable car officially entered operation, visitor numbers to Sa Pa and Lao Cai Province have recorded a marked surge. In its very first year of operation, the cable car helped Sa Pa surpass the milestone of one million visitors for the first time. Between 2016 and 2019, total tourist arrivals to Lao Cai rose sharply compared with the previous period.

This growth momentum has been sustained in recent years, evidenced by Sa Pa’s ability to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors during peak holiday periods, figures that would have been almost unimaginable more than a decade ago. During the recent four-day New Year holiday alone, Sa Pa received approximately 148,000 visitors, nearly one-third of its total visitor volume for the entire year of 2012. These numbers have effectively dispelled the long-held perception of Sa Pa as a tourism town that merely “hid in the mist.”

Sa Pa’s modern tourism infrastructure is reshaping the town, attracting both domestic and international travelers.

From a once “selective” destination constrained by remote terrain and limited accessibility, Sa Pa has gradually opened its doors to mass tourism while also attracting leisure travelers and international visitors. Shortening access time to the Fansipan summit has not only transformed the way travelers experience the Hoang Lien Son range, but has also helped bring the image of the “Roof of Indochina” more frequently into international travel publications and media. In recent years, Sa Pa has been repeatedly cited by prestigious organizations and magazines such as the World Travel Awards and Travel + Leisure as a standout destination in Vietnam and the region.

Behind Sa Pa’s rapid rise is the long term development of a relatively integrated tourism ecosystem, built steadily around infrastructure and services. The range of visitor experiences has expanded from landscape sightseeing and mountain retreats to cultural and spiritual tourism. Spaces that celebrate local identity and reflect the lives of H’Mong, Dao and Tay communities, along with seasonal festivals and highland markets, have helped ensure that Sa Pa retains its inherent character amid the wave of development.

Visitors immerse themselves in the authentic rhythm of highland life at the May Village Cultural Festival.

Sa Pa’s 15-place rise in Agoda’s rankings within a single year underscores the effectiveness of a tourism development strategy built on improved accessibility, enhanced visitor experiences and longer lengths of stay. After more than a decade of transformation, Sa Pa is no longer mentioned merely as a misty resort town, but is increasingly establishing itself as a destination with sustainable appeal in Asia, where tourism growth goes hand in hand with efforts to preserve highland landscapes and cultural heritage.