Vietnam plans to pour 1.5 billion U. S. dollars in tourism sector from now to 2010, hoping to host 5.5 million to 6 million international arrivals by then, a local official told Xinhua on Monday.

"A large amount of 1.5 billion dollars from the central state budget will be spent on upgrading roads leading to national tourism resorts nationwide, and developing new infrastructure works in the central region and Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands region)," said the official from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Vietnam spent 2,146 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 135 million dollars) from the central budget alone on developing tourism infrastructure in 62 cities and provinces in the 2001-2005 period, the official said, noting that investment from the localities' own budgets was considerable.

With heavier investment, the country hopes to welcome 5.5 million to 6 million foreign visitors and 25 million to 26 million domestic ones in 2010, and make total tourism revenues of 4 billion to 4.5 billion dollars.

The country hosted nearly 3.5 million international arrivals and 16 million domestic visitors in 2005.

Vietnam received over 673,000 foreign visitors in the first two months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 15.1 percent. The country's biggest tourism markets in the past two month were China, the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Source: Xinhua