Hanoi (VNA) – The number offoreign tourists to Vietnam in the first six months of 2018 surged 27.2 percentyear-on-year to 7.89 million, the General Statistics Office announced on June29.

Arrivals by air, road, and sea in thereviewed period recorded annual increases of 22.2 percent, 63.7 percent and 1.7percent, respectively.

Growth was also seen in the numbers ofvisitors from all five continents, with Asia (32.7 percent), Europe (11percent), America (13.5 percent), Oceania (10 percent) and Africa (22.2percent).

The results were attributed to effortstaken by the tourism sector, especially in tourism promotion abroad.

Most recently, a tourism promotionprogramme was organised in the four European countries of Switzerland, Austria,Hungary and the Czech Republic from June 19-28.

Notably, this was the first time Vietnamesetourism has been promoted in Hungary, which reported a rise of 30 percent inthe number of visitors to Vietnam in 2017.

A series of activities have been alsoorganised in Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu and Busan cities of the Republic of Koreafrom June 18-25. Last year, Vietnam welcomed 2.4 million Korean tourists, up56.4 percent from the previous year. In the first half of this year, over 1.7million Korean visitors travelled to Vietnam, soaring 60.7 percent annually.

From July 1, tourists from the UK, France,Germany, Spain and Italy will enjoy visa exemptions in the next three yearsuntil June 30, 2021, when travelling to Vietnam.

The continued visa exemption is expected topush up the development of the Vietnamese tourism sector.

The number of tourists from these countriesto Vietnam soared in recent years, with 720,000 in 2015, 855,000 in 2016, and1,500,000 in 2017.

From September 25 to October 7, the VietnamNational Administration of Tourism plans to hold tourism promotion activitiesin France, Spain, Italy and Germany in order to attract more tourists fromthese markets.-VNA