Hanoi (VNA) – Thetourism sector will host the 10 millionth foreign visitor to Vietnam at the PhuQuoc international airport in the southerncoastal province of Kien Giang on December 25.
The same day, a ceremony will take place to round offthe 2016 National Tourism Year, which was designated to draw visitors to PhuQuoc island and the Mekong Delta region.
Experts said the tourism year is a key move in turningKien Giang into a tourism hub in the Mekong Delta region with Phu Quoc islandas a leading resort destination of Vietnam.
In 2016, more than 5.4 million tourists visited KienGiang, increasing 24 percent year on year and exceeding the yearly quota by 9.5percent. Of the figure, international arrivals grew 31.4 percent annually, 14percent higher than initial plan.
According to the Vietnam National Administration ofTourism, the country expects to welcome over 10 million international arrivals andserve more than 62 million domestic travelers this year, with total revenueestimated at 400 trillion VND (18 billion USD).
On January 1, 2017, Vietnam will begin issuing e-visafor foreign tourists.
As such, the tourism sector has set goals of 11.5million foreign visitors and revenue of 460 trillion VND (20.24 billion USD) in2017.-VNA