Viet Nam welcomes over 8.8 million foreign arrivals in first half

Given the above positive growth in inbound tourism, the nation reached 50 percent of the whole-year target of 17-18 million international tourist arrivals. The peak of international tourism for Viet Nam starts from around September to next year's March-April.

Statistics from the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism showed that among the 8.832 million visitors so far this year, arrivals by air accounted for 83.8 per cent (7.4 million), 14.3 per cent by road (1.3 million) and 1.9 per cent by sea (164,900).

During the January-June period, South Korea continued to be Viet Nam's largest tourist source market, with 2.2 million visitors, or 25.8 percent of the total international tourist arrivals. China came second with 1.8 million tourists.

Other major tourist source markets included Taiwan with 630,000; the U.S. 415,000; Japan 336,000; and Malaysia 254,000.

By region, Asia still topped the list of foreign visitors to Viet Nam in the first half, with 6.94 million arrivals, up 65.7 percent year-on-year. Europe ranked second with nearly 1.06 million (up 52.4 percent), followed by the Americas with 536,800 (up 13.4 percent) and Oceania with 266,600 (up 31.8 percent).

At present, Viet Nam unilaterally waives visa requirements for citizens from 13 countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus. They can stay up to 45 days from the date of entry, regardless of passport types and entry purposes.