Vietnam welcomed more than 9.4 million international tourists in the first nine months of 2017, a year-on-year rise of 28.4 percent.

Foreign tourists visit One-pillar Pagoda, a well-known attraction in Hanoi.

Meanwhile the number of domestic visitors hit 57.9 million in January-September.

The tourism sector grossed 376 trillion VND (16.54 billion USD) in revenue, up 26.5 percent against the same period last year.

In September, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) organised the first national tourism skill contest, aiming to honour tourism workers and share experience in the field.

The VNAT also launched promotion programmes in key markets such as the North European countries of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden (from September 13-22); and the Japanese cities of Kanagawa, Tokyo, Sendai and Nagoya (from September 15-23).

It is promoting Vietnamese tourism in three Southeast Asian markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand from September 25-30.

Vietnam has also participated in major international fairs such as the JATA Tourism Expo in Tokyo, Japan, from September 21-24, and the Top Resa Tourism Trade Fair in Paris from September 26-29.

The country has defined Japan as a key market in tourism development plans.

In recent years, Japan has been among the top three countries in terms of tourist arrivals to Vietnam.

In 2016, the country served about 74,000 Japanese tourists, up 10 percent against the previous year.

As many as 518,028 Japanese visited the Southeast Asian nation in the first eight months of this year.

Vietnam aims to serve 13 million international tourists in 2017.

VNA