In the first nine months of 2010, the number of international arrivals to Ho Chi Minh City reached 2.2 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 13 percent.
The city expects to receive at least 3.3 million foreign visitors in 2011, earning VND48 trillion (US$2.4 billion), according to the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
At this growth rate, the southern economic hub hopes to welcome the 3 millionth visitor in mid-December this year.
HCMC targets 2.8 million foreign tourists this year but the real figure may exceed 3 million.
The city’s tourism sector accounts for 60 percent of international arrivals to Vietnam , 45 percent of the country’s tourism revenues and 5.5 percent of its GDP.
Vietnam has organised tourism promotion programmes and cultural exchanges in China, Japan, the RoK and Cambodia in addition to roadshows in Australia , Norway and West European countries, they added.
The nation has targeted 4.5-4.6 million foreign tourists this year, a year-on-year increase of more than 17 percent.
Travel agencies will continue with tourism promotion and sales discount programmes in August and September in a number of key tourism cities and provinces.
Hanoi plans to organise tours to a number of ancient Vietnamese capitals, museums and homestays to attract more tourists to the city.
The Vietnamese tourism authority said it expected about 1 million Chinese holidaymakers to visit the country this year, double last year's number.
VNAT attributed the rise to a series of promotional campaigns run in major Chinese cities over the last two years.
the number of Chinese holidaymakers visiting the south of the country was rising by 25 percent annually.
Travel firms have also reported significant growth in visitor numbers from China. Lien Bang Travelink said the number of tourists using the company's services had increased by 30 percent since the beginning of the year compared to the same period in 2009.
However Vietnam could not compete with regional countries such as Bangkok or Singapore in terms of shopping malls or medical facilities.
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