Of the total, 10.9 million tourists arrived by plane while 1.8 million people came to Vietnam on land. About 258,800 visitors came to the nation by seaway.
The foreign tourists to Vietnam this year included 9.7 million people from Asia, representing a year-on-year increase of 34.4 per cent. The country received 1.8 million people from Europe, 817,000 people from the Americas, 420,900 visitors from Australia, and 35,900 people from Africa. Visitors from China numbered 4 million, 48.6 per cent higher than last year, the office said.
In 2017, there were 73 million domestic travellers and total revenue from tourism activities was estimated at over VNĐ510 trillion (US$22.4 billion).
According to international travel companies, thanks to the visa exemption policy, the number of European tourists to Vietnam grew rapidly at an average of 20 -30 per cent per country, especially from the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
In 2018, the tourism industry aims to welcome more than 15.5 million foreign visitors and serve 78 million domestic visitors. The industry hopes total revenue will reach VNĐ620 trillion.