Vietnam Welcomes 2.5 Million Foreign Visitors In Six Months

Tourist
from Sweden, Finland and Norway have their share in the newest record in Vietnamese
tourism, when the country welcomed 2.5 million foreign tourists in the first
half of the year, Vietnam News Agency said quoting a report in the Government’s
web portal.
    It said in
June alone the country had some 450,000 foreign arrivals, surging 34 percent
over the same period last year.
    According
to the Ministry of Investment and Planning, the tourist sector earned 37
trillion VND in revenues in the first half of this year, or 60.7 percent of its
yearly plan.
    Foreign
holiday-makers mainly came from China,
Philippines, Thailand, Singapore,
Sweden, Finland, Norway,
and Germany.
Particularly, Chinese tourists, the number sharply increased in the reviewed
period.
    Ho Chi Minh City welcomed around 1.5 million foreign
tourists in the same period, seeing a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.
    The central
region also saw brisk tourist activities as the number of foreign visitors
travelling by sea to Nha Trang and Da
Nang cities and by land via international border gates
of Lao Bao and Cau Treo swelled.
    Wide-scale
advertisement programmes also helped the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay in
northern Quang Ninh province attract more foreign visitors.
    In June
alone, the UNESCO-recognised world heritage site welcomed 213,000 tourists,
including 130,500 foreigners.