Vietnam welcomed 4.3 million international visitors in the first ninemonths of this year, a surge of 15.5 percent compared to the same periodlast year.
According to the General Statistics Office,almost all foreign sources of Vietnamese tourism saw year-on-yearincreases during the perio. Visitors from China rose by a huge 45percent to 980,000, South Koreans by 4 percent to 380,000 and Japaneseby 8.2 percent to 340,000. Other sources such as Taiwan , the UnitedStates and France also recorded positive growths.
Vietnam hopes that good promotions will attract 5.5 millioninternational tourists by the year's end, 500,000 more than last year,according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
As one such effort, VNAT last week arranged for 55 domestic tourismcompanies to participate in "Vietnamese Cultural Days in Russia ".
" Vietnam 's tourism sector is always willing to offer the bestservices and products to Russian tourists," said head of VNAT Nguyen AnhTuan.
Tuan was speaking on the sidelines of a conferenceto publicise Vietnam 's tourism potential in Saint Petersburg as partof "The Vietnamese Cultural Days in Russia ".
Tuancalled on the two countries' airlines and travel agencies to co-operatein offering new tourism products, helping the two peoples exploredestinations in each country.
Vietnam is regainingspecial attention from Russian visitors, thanks to its warmer climate,long coastline, friendly people and low-priced services, said Chairmanof the Saint Petersburg 's Committee for Investment and StrategicProjects, Aleksei Trichkanov.
He proposed that the twosides open a direct air-route from Vietnam to Saint Petersburg ,saying that it would increase travel to both countries.
Last year, Vietnam welcomed almost 83,000 Russian visitors, up 50percent over 2009. This year, as many as 120,000 Russian tourists areexpected to come to visit./.