The number of foreign visitors travelling to Vietnam in the first month of 2019 is estimated to reach over 1.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 5%, according to the General Statistics Office.

The number of foreign visitors travelling to Vietnam in the first month of 2019 is estimated to reach over 1.5 million

Accordingly, arrivals by air and sea increased by 1.4% and 26.9% compared to the same period last year, respectively, while those arriving by land decreased 30.5%.

The number of Asian tourists hit over 1.1 million during January, up 5.4% over the same period last year. Visitors from the Republic of Korea (RoK) went up 23%, surpassing China to become the country with highest number of travellers to Vietnam.

The number of European visitors rose by 3.1% year-on-year, including those from Russia (up 2.2%), the UK (3.9%), France (1.3%), Germany (3.9%), Sweden (6%) and Italy (3.9%).

In addition, tourists from America and Oceania were up 7.8% and 0.2%, respectively, while the number of African visitors was down 2.1% over January last year.

The tourism sector expected to serve 6.6 million domestic tourists this month and earn VND56.5 trillion from both domestic and international visitors, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%.

Vietnam also targeted to receive 18 million foreign visitors and serve 85 million domestic tourists in 2019, earning total revenue of over VND700 trillion.