Foreign tourists in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam'stourism industry could achieve its goal of welcoming 12-13 foreign million visitors by theend of this year, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administrationof Tourism (VNAT) Pham Van Thuy told a regular press conference of theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Hanoi on October 9.
Thuy said in the first nine month, foreign arrivals in Vietnam exceeded the settarget of 8 million by 11%.
Recently, Vietnam's more open visa policy has created favourableconditions to welcome foreign visitors. In addition, Vietnam is undergoing acultural revival, with all of its historical sites and heritages becoming assetsthat could be used to create unique tourism products, making them attractive tointernational tourists. Traditional and nearby markets have also shown relativelygood signs of recovery, he said.
According to the VNAT, Vietnam's tourism sectorhas recovered rapidly since the beginning of this year. Especially during July,August and September, the country welcomed over 1 million foreigners each.
In the past nine months, foreign and domesticarrivals reached 8.9 million and 93.5 million, respectively, bringing in a revenueof 536.5 trillion VND ($22 billion).
The Republic of Korea remained the biggestsource of arrivals with roughly 2.6 million, or 29% of the total. In Europe,the top three markets were the UK with 187,000, France 155,000, and Germany 142,000.
The traditional Chinese market achieved arecovery rate of 28%./.
