October 17, 2004
Vietnam received 670,000 visitors from China's mainland between January to mid-October, a year-on-year rise of 42 percent, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on Friday.
The increase is mainly attributed to Vietnam's new regulation, which allowed Chinese people without visas but laissez-passers to travel across the country from Sept. 12, instead of only seven northern cities and provinces of the country as previously.
Vietnam is likely to receive one million visitors annually from China's mainland, which is regarded as its biggest tourist marketin recent years, the VNAT said, adding that the majority of Chinese people, who often go to the country on holidays, visit the World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay in northern Quang Ninh province.
The country hosted over 2.1 international arrivals in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of 30.5 percent. Its second and third biggest tourist markets in the period were the United States and Chinese Taiwan with the numbers of visitors increasing by 32.6 percent and 36.1 percent to roughly 211,000 and 187,000 respectively.
The country, which targets to receive 2.7-2.8 million international arrivals this year, up 22.7-27.3 percent against last year, plans to host 3-3.5 million foreign visitors, and achieve tourism revenues of over 2 billion US dollars next year.
According to the latest assessment of the World Travel and Tourism Council, Vietnam's annual tourism growth rate will reach 8.3 percent in the next 10 years, ranking the fourth after Montenegro, China and India.
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