Vietnam has welcomed 12.6 million international tourist arrivals this year, far exceeding its whole-year target of eight million, up 3.4-fold against the year-ago figure, yet equivalent to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to statistics released on Friday by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Close to 11 million international tourists, or 86.9 percent, visited this Southeast Asian country by air.

Those traveling to the country by road and by sea accounted for 1.5 million and 126,100, up fourfold and 40.2-fold year on year, respectively.

Asians constituted the largest group of foreign tourists to Vietnam, with more than 9.78 million people, rising 3.8-fold versus last year’s figure.

The country served over 1.4 million visitors from Europe, 903,800 from the Americas, and 428,100 from Oceania, all up more than twofold year over year.

The GSO said that South Korea and China sent the largest numbers of visitors to Vietnam with close to 3.6 million and some 1.75 million arrivals, respectively.

In December alone, the country welcomed around 1.4 million international tourist arrivals, inching up 11 percent month on month and surging nearly 94 percent year over year.

Meanwhile, five million Vietnamese traveled abroad this year, up twofold compared to that of last year.

Of them, more than one million Vietnamese embarked on trips to Thailand. Over 536,800 opted to visit Japan, which was an all-time high and exceeded the 2019 figure, according to the Vietnam Tourism Association.

Vietnam has served an estimated 108 million domestic visitors, 5.8 percent higher than its target set earlier this year.

The fact that Vietnam adopted more relaxed visa policies and played host to many international music events and concerts throughout this year made the country a more appealing destination for international tourists.

Concert-goers who came to Vietnam also embarked on tours to other destinations neighboring the concert venues, thereby helping contribute to the local tourism and economy.

Experts in the industry anticipated that Vietnam could serve up to 15 million international visitor arrivals next year, providing that there are no unexpected events.

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