It has already surpassed the entire year’s target of 8.5 million, the GSO noted. In November alone, Vietnam welcomed more than 926,000 foreigners, up 14 percent compared to last month and up 25 percent compared to the same period last year.
The GSO also reported that the tourism sector also served 57.7 million domestic travellers during this 11-month period. The total tourism revenue for the period is estimated at 368.6 trillion VND (16.4 billion USD), up 18.6 percent year-on-year.
The number of foreign visitors who flew into the country reached 7.53 million, up 32 percent year-on-year. The number of visitors arriving by sea dropped 11.4 percent year-on-year to 139,000, while arrivals by road also saw a slight decline of 1.5 percent, to 1.31 million.
In the 11-month period, the highest number of visitors was from China, with nearly 2.5 million Chinese travelling to Vietnam so far this year, a 54 percent surge compared to the same period last year.
The Republic of Korea came second, with 1.4 million tourists, up 39.2 percent, while Japan and the US ranked third and fourth, with 680,000, up 10.5 percent, and 500,000, up 13.4 percent, respectively.
The number of tourists also grew from countries such as New Zealand (up 35 percent), Russia (up 29 percent), Thailand (up 29 percent), Italy (up 27 percent), the UK (up 20 percent), Germany (up 18 percent), Canada (up 16 percent) and Taiwan (up 15 percent).
The GSO forecasted that the total number of foreign tourists would likely hit 9.7 million by year end and tourism revenue would touch 400 trillion VND (17.8 billion USD).
