Chinese visitors to Vietnam surge in January-July

HANOI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam welcomed nearly 3 million Chinese visitors between January and July, or 32.7 percent of the total international arrivals, posting a year-on-year rise of 34.1 percent, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Vietnam received a total of roughly 9.1 million international arrivals, up 25.4 percent year-on-year, with the highest growth of 56.1 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, followed by Finland, up 35.2 percent, and China, up 34.1 percent.

Of the international arrivals in the first seven months of this year, nearly 7.4 million came to Vietnam by air, up 20.2 percent, over 1.5 million by road, up 63.3 percent and 177,800 by sea, down 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, roughly 7 million visitors were from Asia, up 30.4 percent; over 1.2 million from Europe, up 10.4 percent; 570,800 from the Americas, mainly from the United States, up 13 percent; 266,500 from Oceania, up 8.4 percent, and 24,300 from Africa, up 21.5 percent.

Vietnam plans to receive 16-17 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic ones, and gain tourism revenues of 27.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, said the administration.