Vietnam's tourism industry has had a remarkable surge this year.

Early last month, Vietnam saw the arrival of the 3 millionth tourist. The industry took 34 years to reach one million tourists a year, six years for 2 million a year and five year for 3 million a year, Pham Tu, deputy head of the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT), told Xinhua on Monday.

In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam received nearly 3. 2 million foreign visitors, posting a year-on-year rise of 19.5 percent. Statistics from the VNAT also showed that so far in 2005, the number of visitors from neighboring China has risen to more than 621,000, followed by the United States with 276,000, Japan with 265,000, South Korea with 262,000.

"We hope to welcome some 3.4 million international arrivals, and make tourism revenues of 30 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (1. 89 billion US dollars) this year. The figures in 1990 were only 250,000 and 1.35 trillion VND (84.9 million dollars)," the VNAT official said.

Vietnam has emerged as a new-option tourist destination in recent years, especially in 2005, a boom year, as some international tourism organizations have remarked. Since mid- October, Vietnam's tourism companies have received many big contracts from abroad.

The World Travel and Tourism Council ranked Vietnam among the top 10 countries expected to see the strongest tourism growth in the next decade.

There are more and more local companies such as Sinh Cafe supplying an open tour, which is a daily bus service, starting in southern HO Chi Minh City (HCM City) and ending in the capital city of Hanoi. It can also offer open tours from Vietnam to Cambodia and Laos.

Many tourists, especially foreigners, have started in recent years to opt for the tour instead of package tour as before, as they can get off and on the bus at whichever destinations they want to visit. Low prices and a flexible, independent itinerary has promoted the change.

Vietnam has also become a new destination for meetings and exhibition tourism. According to VNAT, luxury hotels' occupancy during the peak season ranged between 75 percent and 90 percent on average.

Domestic tourism has also maintained a similarly stable growth, said a VNAT official, noting that tourism will generate more than 1.5 million jobs in 2010 in the country.

Currently, an average local youth can earn 80 to 100 US dollars per month through tourism, twice the average income of urban dwellers, according to a local survey.

In addition to 300 local travel businesses, Vietnam has so far licensed 239 foreign-invested projects in tourism with a combined capital of 6.1 billion dollars. The local tourism industry has created more than 234,000 direct jobs and over 500,000 indirect ones.

Now, 13 Vietnamese travel agencies have representative offices in 12 foreign countries and regions, the VNAT said.

As tourism can also improve the lives of the poor in other ways like accommodation services, tourist guiding, transportation, Vietnam's government has identified it as a spearhead of the economy.

The government has taken measures to support its development such as visas-exempt for some countries and improving the facilities and services in major tourist centers.

As the industry is still facing weak human resources in terms of foreign languages and professional skills, the Vietnamese government asked the industry to focus on enrichment of knowledge, professionalism, and behavior culture for the employees, in a move to receive 6 million foreign visitors in 2010.

Currently, among 234,000 direct employees in the industry, over 60 percent have undergone full professional training, and among nearly 8,000 tourist guides, less than 70 percent have been granted professional cards.

Source: Xinhua