This was affirmed by Mr. Vu The Binh, Head of Travel Department under the Vietnam National Tourism Administration in an annual meeting on April 17, in Hanoi.

According to Mr. Binh, more than 2,000 international caravan groups visited Vietnam over the past three years. If the Government approved regulations to allow foreign road vehicles to travel in Vietnam, the number of tour caravans to Vietnam in 2008 will be equal to the total of all previous years.

More than 1.2 million foreigners came to Vietnam in the first quarter of 2008, with a 58.2 percent increases in the number of business travelers. Chinese tourist increased by 60.2 percent on year while the Republic of Korea and Japan markets saw slight decreases in the number of tourists.

Ho Chi Minh City remains the top tourism market with 840,000 foreign tourists in the first quarter, earning a turnover of 6,700 billion VND.

The Vietnam National Tourism Administration organized many other activities to further promote Vietnam tourism to foreign friends such as holding seven international tourism fairs, developing a caravan tour to travel through six Southeast Asian countries, carrying out surveys in Laos and Cambodia to develop the project “three countries – one destination” and organizing seminars on domestic tourism products and travel.

(Source: VNA)