More than 833,000 foreign visitors entered Viet Nam in February, a 3.5 per cent increase from the previous month and 20 per cent surge year-on-year.

Foreign tourists take a cyclo tour in the central city of Hue. More than 833,000 foreign visitors entered Viet Nam in February, a 20 per cent increase from 2015.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), the latest addition has brought the number of foreign arrivals to the country in the first two months up to approximately 1.64 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent.

Foreign arrivals by air reached about 1.33 million, up 14.2 per cent year-on-year while arrivals by road saw a yearly rise of 31.3 per cent to 288,000. However, arrivals by sea declined 22 per cent to number 24,200.

During the reviewed period, the number of holidaymakers from Asian countries increased 20.3 per cent to over 1.1 million. Several nations saw the strong growth of tourists to Viet Nam including China, up 49 per cent, South Korea, up 31 per cent and Japan, up 11 per cent. However, number of Cambodian tourists to Viet Nam dropped by 64 per cent, followed by 2 per cent from Laos.

Meanwhile, visitors from European nations experienced a year-on-year rise of 7.5 per cent to reach 296,000 in two months. Encouraging growth was seen in some markets such as the United Kingdom which surged 19.6 per cent, Germany which rose 14.4 per cent, Russia which rose 8.9 per cent, and France which grew 8.1 per cent.

Viet Nam hopes to welcome 8.5 million foreign visitors and 60 million domestic travellers by the year-end, earning a total of VND370 trillion (US$16.8 billion) in revenue.

Earlier, Vietnamplus.vn quoted General Director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, Nguyen Van Tuan, as saying that tourism industry would likely to grow at two digits in the first quarter.

The sector was making concerted efforts to revamp and enhance efficiency, as well as professionalism in promotion activities, Tuan said.

He also encouraged localities to attend some tourism fairs such as Beijing's International Tourism Expo (BITE), JATA tourism expo in Japan and the International French Travel Market Top Resa. 

VNS