Chinese tourists to Vietnam surge in 10 months

Vietnam welcomed roughly 4.2 million Chinese visitors in the first 10 months of this year, or 32.6 percent of the total international arrivals, posting a year-on-year rise of 28.8 percent, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Vietnam hosted a total of more than 12.8 million international arrivals, up 22.4 percent on-year, with the highest growth of 48.3 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, tailed by Finland, up 33.3 percent, and China, up 28.8 percent.

Of the foreign visitors in the first 10 months of this year, nearly 10.4 million came to Vietnam by air, up 26.7 percent; roughly 2.3 million by road, up 62.5 percent; and 200,100 by sea, down 2.3 percent.

Meanwhile, roughly 10 million visitors were from Asia, up 26.5 percent; nearly 1.7 million from Europe, up 9.8 percent; 754,200 from the Americas, mainly from the United States, up 12.4 percent; 372,600 from Oceania, up 5.7 percent, and 34,800 from Africa, up 19.7 percent.

Between January and October, Vietnam also welcomed 67.9 million domestic tourists. The country plans to receive some 16 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic ones, and gain tourism revenues of 27.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, said the administration.