More than 7.3 million foreigners visited Việt Nam in the first five months of this year, attesting to the country’s rising popularity as a tourism destination. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY – More than 7.3 million foreigners visited Việt Nam in the first five months of this year, attesting to the country’s rising popularity as a tourism destination.

Most of the foreign tourists were from Asia, with the numbers rising 10 per cent year-on-year to 5.6 million, accounting for 76.8 per cent of the total.

China remained the biggest source of visitors with nearly 2.1 million, followed by South Korea, the second biggest market, which recorded a 22.4 per cent increase to nearly 1.7 million.

The number of tourists from the European market grew by six per cent compared with last year.

Tourism officials have attributed the increase in numbers to international tourists spending their summer breaks during Việt Nam's festival season, marked by many cultural events organised across the country.

Many travel agencies have said that Vietnam should further relax its visa policies and simplify procedures to attract high-spending tourists from Japan, North America, Northern Europe, China and South Korea.

They have called for the current 15-day visa exemption to be extended to 30 days. – VNS