Vietnam welcomed an estimated 2.4 million international arrivals in the first eight months of this year, posting a year-on-year rise of 4.8 percent.

The visitors are mainly from China, South Korea, the United States, Japan and Australia, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said Tuesday, noting that with over 380,000 visitors to the country between January and August, China remained its biggest tourism market.

To lure more foreign visitors, Vietnam is intensifying tourism promotion in the key markets and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), improving quality of service and upgrading infrastructure. It has planned to pour 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in the tourism sector from now to 2010, most of which will be spent on upgrading roads leading to tourism resorts nationwide, and developing new infrastructure works in the central region and Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands region), said the VNAT.

With the investment, the country hopes to welcome 5.5-6 million foreign visitors and 25-26 million domestic ones in 2010, and make total tourism revenues of 4-4.5 billion dollars.

Vietnam registered nearly 3.5 million international arrivals and 16 million domestic visitors in 2005, the VNAT said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)