In the first nine months of 2007, HCMC greeted an estimated 1.9 million foreign tourists, an increase of 13.7% year on year, reaching 71.6% of the yearly target, said the city’s Tourism Department.

Of this figure, about 1.5 million foreigners visited the city by air, up 11% year on year, 25,000 foreigners came by sea, up 38%, and the overland visitors were up 25%.

The number of foreign tourists surged over the nine months because the trans-Asia road route has been completed, more international border gates have been upgraded in the North-Western and Eastern provinces as the city’s promotion of caravan tours got underway.

The five leading countries posting great number of foreigners to visit Vietnam are the US (up 8%), Japan (up 15%), Taipei (up 8%), the Republic of Korea (up 33%), and Australia (up 37%) year on year.

In spite of not listing in top ten, the Russian tourists, mainly via MICE (meeting, incentive, conference, and exhibition) type, achieved a high growth (81%) and this is expected to develop strongly in Vietnam if the Vietnam tourism promotion campaign is carried out successfully.