Foreign tourists coming into Vietnam both by sea and by air in the first half of 2012 has increased considerably compared to last year. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), travelers visiting Vietnam by sea has risen to 46.7 percent compared to 2011.

In the same manner, visitors entering the country by air has increased by 14.2 percent. This is equivalent to two million foreigners visiting Vietnam just in the first six months of this year. Chinese tourists are the most frequent visitors to Vietnam, with 682,000 travelling to Vietnam in the first five months of 2012. This makes up for 22.3 percent of the total foreign visitors to the country. Based on a year to year visit to Vietnam though, the Republic of Korea tops the list with 41.3 percent of its citizens going to the historically-rich nation. Thailand tourists has a 28.6 percent visit rate to Vietnam.

However encouraging these data may be, the total number of international tourists visiting Vietnam in June of this year was only 417,000, actually down by 8.6 percent against the 28.6 percent international travelers entering the country last May of 2011.

The Vietnam tourism sector targets to attract 6.5 million foreign tourists into their country this year, 2012.