The number of foreigners visiting Viet Nam in August reached 899,700 arrivals, an increase of 34.4 per cent over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Last month, the number of foreign tourists arriving in the country by air and by road rose by 27.7 per cent and 102.4 per cent, respectively, compared to the same period last year to reach 779,000 and 108,200.

Over the period, the number of foreign tourists by sea increased by 120.6 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The number of international arrivals in the first eight months of the year totaled 6.45 million, a year-on-year increase of 25.4 per cent.

In the past eight months, tourists from China topped the tourist markets, with 1.75 million arrivals, followed by South Korea (one million), Japan (482,300), US (386,800), Taiwan (341,200) and Australia (219,000).

Decree 56/NQ-CP, issued in July, allowed for visa exemptions to be extended by an additional year for tourists from five Western European countries - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain- and resulted in strong growth from these markets.

In the past eight months, the number of tourists from Italy surged by 31 per cent over the same period last year, Spain up 27.6 per cent, the UK 22.8 per cent, Germany 17.7 per cent and France 13.4 per cent.

The number of domestic tourists totaled 43.1 million in the first eight months, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

Over the eight-month period, revenue from the tourism sector was estimated at VND265.15 trillion (US$11.83 billion), an increase of 22.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The tourism sector has targeted receiving 8.5 million international tourist arrivals this year, a year-on-year increase of 600,000. 

VNS