Vietnam receives more foreign visitors

Vietnam is estimated to host over 2. 1 million international arrivals in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year rise of seven percent.

Among the arrivals, the number of business visitors surged the most, by 24.9 percent to nearly 325,200, and that of tourists rose 3.6 percent to over 1.2 million, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on Friday.

China remained Vietnam's biggest tourism market in the period with nearly 358,200 visitors, followed by South Korea with over 236,500, and the United States with 240,500.

To lure more foreign visitors, Vietnam is intensifying tourism promotion on such key markets as the United States, Japan and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by improving quality of service and upgrading infrastructure.

Vietnam expects visits of 5.5-6 million foreign tourists and 25- 26 million domestic ones by 2010, and total tourism revenues of 4- 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in the year, said the VNAT.

The country hosted nearly 3.5 million international arrivals and 16 million domestic visitors in 2005.

Source: Xinhua