More than nine million foreigners visited Viet Nam from January to November, up 25.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2015, the General Statistics Office (GSO) has revealed.

The 11-month figure has already surpassed the entire year’s target of 8.5 million, the GSO said.

In November alone, more than 926,000 foreigners arrived in Viet Nam, which is 14 per cent higher than last month and 25 per cent higher year-on-year.

Foreign visitors who flew into the country have touched 7.53 million, up 32 per cent year-on-year. Visitors by sea dropped 11.4 per cent year-on-year to 139,000, while arrivals by road also saw a slight decline of 1.5 per cent, to 1.31 million.

In the 11-month period, the highest number of visitors was from China, with nearly 2.5 million Chinese travelling to Viet Nam so far this year, a 54 per cent surge compared to the same period last year.

South Korea came second with 1.4 million tourists, up 39.2 per cent, while Japan and the US ranked third and fourth, with 680,000, up 10.5 per cent, and 500,000, up 13.4 per cent, respectively.

The number of tourists has increased from countries such as New Zealand (up 35 per cent), Russia (up 29 per cent), Thailand (up 29 per cent), Italy (up 27 per cent), the UK (up 20 per cent), Germany (up 18 per cent), Canada (up 16 per cent) and Taiwan (up 15 per cent).

The tourism sector also served 57.7 million domestic travellers during this 11-month period, the GSO said.

The total revenue for the period is estimated at VND368.6 trillion (US$16.4 billion), up 18.6 per cent year-on-year.

With such positive figures, the GSO has forecast that the total number of foreign tourists would likely hit 9.7 million by year-end and tourism revenue would touch VND400 trillion ($17.8 billion). — VNS