The number of international tourists arriving in Viet Nam in the third quarter of this year increased 15 per cent against the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

However, the figure was still lower than those in the first and second quarters.

Between January and September, the country welcomed some 11.61 million foreign holiday-makers, a year-on-year rise of 23 per cent, with visitors by air, road and sea up 17.4 per cent, 62.1 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

Tourists from Asia rose 27.2 per cent; Europe 10 per cent; America 12.5 per cent; Oceania 6.3 per cent; and Africa 19.5 per cent.

In September, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) conducted various activities in foreign markets in an effort to attract international vacationers.

Also this month, the agency held tourism promotion activities for the first time in Canada on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties (1973-2018).

VNAT plans to team up with the US Travel Association and the Ha Noi Promotion Agency to organise a tourism promotion programme in Washington DC and New York.

The US remains one of Viet Nam’s top five tourism markets with the number of American vacationers to the country exceeding 614,000 in 2017, up 11 per cent against 2016. As of August 2018, Viet Nam had served 486,000 US holiday-makers, a year-on-year increase of 14.5 per cent. — VNS