VNAT statistics show most of the arrivals were holiday-makers, accounting for over 1.4 million, and nearly 404,000 returned home to visit their relatives.

China had the highest number of visitors to Vietnam (587,475), followed by the Republic of Korea and Japan.

With only 5,817 visitors travelling to Vietnam in the last three months, Hong Kong (China) achieved the highest growth among Vietnam’s tourism markets.

However, the number of foreign arrivals in March dropped 15.7% compared to February to nearly 710,000, said the VNAT.

The central province of Thua Thien-Hue is attracting crowds of foreign travelers as it is hosting the biennial Hue Festival in April.

More than 270,000 foreign visitors came to Hue in the first quarter, a year-on-year rise of 2.1%.

The central province expects to attract approximately 200,000 visitors during the 2014 Hue Festival, with half of them foreigners.

The VNAT also reported that the number of Vietnamese holiday-makers also rose 6.85% in Q1 to 13.7 million.