The number of foreign visitors to Vietnam is expected to reach 3.6 million this year, up from nearly 3.5 million last year, a local tourism body told Xinhua Tuesday.

The country is also estimated to host 17.5 million domestic tourists in 2006, up 9.4 percent over 2005, and gain total tourism revenues of 36 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 2.3 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, said the Tourism Promotion Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Vietnam welcomed, between January and November, nearly 3.3 million international arrivals, of whom 57.4 percent for tourism, roughly 16 percent for business, 15.8 percent for visiting relatives, and 10.8 percent for other purposes. Vietnam's biggest tourism source markets in the 11-month period were China, South Korea, the United States and Japan.

"We are eyeing 4.2-4.4 million foreign visitors and 18.5 million domestic visitors in 2007. We also target tourism revenues of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars," the department said, adding that Vietnam targets 5.5-6 million international arrivals and 25-26 million domestic visitors, and total tourism revenues of 4-4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

To realize the targets, Vietnam will intensify investment in fostering tourism promotion abroad, training personnel, especially tourist guides, and developing tourism infrastructure nationwide, it said.

"We will encourage more local enterprises to participate in big tourism fairs abroad. Besides, we will organize events in major tourism markets to promote our non-smoke industry," the department said, noting that Vietnam will continue to tap such traditional markets as China, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, North America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

Source: Xinhua