An estimated 1.58 million foreigners visited Viet Nam in February, a month-on-month increase of 5.8%, according to the General Statistics Office.

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

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%.

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

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

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

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

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

(Source: VNA)