More than 3.7 million foreigners visited Vietnam in nine months

(CPV) – The General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported more than 383,400 foreign tourists visited Vietnam in September 2010, an increase of 26% from September 2009. This figure raised the total foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first nine months of 2010 to more than 3.7 million. Compared to the same period of 2009, almost all tourist markets saw increases, such as Cambodia, up 92.2%; China, up 89.2%; Thailand, up 39.5%; the Republic of Korea, up 29.4%; Australia, up 27.9%; Malaysia, up 23.1%; Japan, up 18.7%; France, up 12%; and the US, up 2.4%. Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has just agreed with the proposal to grant free visas to foreign tourists between October and December. The policy will be applied to foreign visitors who book package tours under a tourist promotions package called “Vietnam - Your destination”. Experts said that sharp increases in the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam over the past months is because promotion policies of the local tourism sector in major markets became effective. The 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi and its related events offered opportunities for travel agents to launch promotion campaigns to attract foreign tourists to Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular.