Vietnam welcomes record number of foreign visitors in February

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This was a record high for international visitors in a month due to the festival season at the beginning of the year with many attractive events for foreigners, the office said.

In the first two months of this year, the country welcomed more than 3 million foreign tourists, a year-on-year surge of 8 percent.

Foreign tourists visit a shop selling souvenirs of the second summit between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Hanoi on February 27 and 28 (Photo: VNA)

Of which, arrivals travelling to Vietnam by air and road increased 5.5 percent year on year to 2.4 million and 29.5 percent to 611,700, respectively. However, those by sea fell 40.7 percent to 54,900 against the same period last year.

Asian visitors reached 2.3 million, accounting for 75.2 percent of total foreign arrivals to Vietnam in the first two months, up 9.4 percent year on year.

Visitors from mainland China were 889,900, the largest number of foreign tourists to Vietnam but the figure was down 1.3 percent year on year. Meanwhile, visitors from the Republic of Korea increased by 24.6 percent to 772,200; from Japan 9.5 percent to 150,800; from Taiwan (China) 27.1 percent to 141,000; from Malaysia 5.3 percent to 91,500; and from Thailand 36.9 percent to 80,000.

European arrivals are estimated at 461,500, up 4.6 percent from the same period last year. Those from America reached 208,600 people, also up 4.6 percent, including 158,100 from the US, an increase of 7 percent.

But visitors from Australia fell 2 percent year-on-year to 88,500 in the first two months.