Tourism sector looks forward to receiving 8.5 million foreign tourists
VGP - By the end of August 2014, the number of foreign tourists to Viet Nam is estimated to reach nearly 5.5 million, which is a good signal promising an year-end figure of 8.5 million. The number is about 1 million higher than 2013.
Accordingly, the total expenses for tourism services will reach nearly $8.1 billion, higher than the total 7.53 billion gained in 2013.
The number of foreign tourists is reported to increase sharply, an increase of 12.2% over the same period last year.
Of those, 60.4% were tourists, 17.2% were those who came back to visit relatives in Viet Nam, 16.8% were those on business trips and 5.6% were for other purposes.
Tourist from Germany increased 83.3%, Russia increased 27.1%, Spain increased 24.3%, China increased 17.2% and the UK increased 17.2%. There were 14 countries and territories which had the number of tourists higher than 100,000.
Regarding expenses, a tourist on an average spent 24.8% for accommodation, 24.3% for food and drink, 6.7% for sight-seeing and 1.3% for healthcare which were higher than previous.
However, the tourist spent only 22.3% for transport, 13.6% for buying and 7% for others were less than previous.
Besides, more foreign tourists came to Viet Nam has created thousands of jobs for local people, not only at border gates, airports, resorts but also at remote and mountainous areas and newly-exploited tourism sites.
By Vien Nhu
