Foreign tourists are among those who spend most by visa cards. — File Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Overseas Visa cardholders spent US$776.4 million (VND16.4 trillion) while visiting Viet Nam in 2012, a 12.3 per cent increase from the previous year.

Overall, the total number of Visa transactions made by overseas visitors surged 15.5 per cent to 4.8 million in 2012, according to the latest Visa Travel Snapshot Vietnam report.

Visitors from the United States recorded the highest amount of spending at VND 2.1 trillion ($99.9 million), a rise of 9.6 per cent from VND1.9 trillion ($91.2 million in 2011. This was followed by visitors from South Korea with VND1.7 trillion ($82.6 million) and Australia with $82.1 million.

Lorijon Bacchi, Visa country manager for Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, said: "The growing card usage among visiting travellers points to Viet Nam gradually becoming a more developed electronic payments market as foreign travellers demonstrated a greater level of trust towards the payment system in the country."— VNS