The announced statistics reveal that Vietnam has welcomed 2.2 million foreign tourists for the first five months of this year. The number presents 37% increase on year-on-year basis in which ${bigcity_Ho_Chi_Minh_City:”HCMC”}, the most popular destination with 1.3 million international arrivals, accounts for more than 50% of all visitors across the country. In May only, Vietnam attracts more than 400,000 tourists, an increase of more than 50% in compared with last year. Most of tourists come from France, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Taiwan and the U.S. According to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, in the first quarter of 2010, Chinese tourists soar 215% over the same period of last year.

In May, it remarkably goes up with nearly 111% in compared with last May. With these encouraging statistics, Vietnam hopes to attract 1 million Chinese visitors in 2010. Along with the effort of national tourism sector in organizing various attractive programs, many featured cultural events such as 1000th anniversary of Thang Long – ${bigcity_Hanoi:"Hanoi"}, Vietnam Ethnic Culture Week in Thai Nguyen Province considerably draw a large number of international visitors. Tour agencies and companies locate in the place of events offer a variety of stimulus package programs to please foreign arrivals. Khanh Hoa Province attempts to cut cost of air tickets and entertainment services by 30% to 50%.

In August – September, Da Nang will offer price reductions to tourists. For Chinese market, Vietnamese tourist companies have directed many promotion programs to their partners with the aim to push for the demand. In turn, Chinese tour agencies have conducted surveys in Vietnam to oversee for the prospect of designing new tours in response to customer’s demands. The most concern of Chinese tourists from the survey is direct flights. Foresee the economic potential and to support for the development of national tourism industry, Vietnam Airlines will launch direct flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Shanghai, and possibly, other routes in the future.