Vietnam witnessed more than 365 300 international arrivals in the first five months of this year, a 4.5-fold increase from the same period in 2021, the General Statistics Office said on Tuesday.
In the period, visitors entering the country via air travel accounted for around 87.8% of the total, reports Xinhua news agency.
Over the five months, approximately 230 988 foreign visitors to Vietnam were from Asia, tripling the figure of the same period last year.
The number of tourists from Europe, America and Oceania also saw hikes of about 11 times, 23 times and 30 times respectively from the same period last year.
Vietnam fully reopened its borders to international visitors on March 15 as part of its efforts to revive the country's tourism and economy after nearly two years of interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country received a record number of over 18 million international arrivals in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic broke out, according to the office.
In 2020 and 2021, the number of international arrivals to Vietnam plunged 78.7% and 95.9% respectively.
The country has targeted to serve over five million overseas tourists in 2022, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
Last year, Vietnam reopenned the resort island of Phu Quoc to vaccinated foreign visitors in late November.
This was to reboot the country’s tourism industry after almost two years of closure.
Phu Quoc, which lies around 10km off Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, boasts white-sand beaches and crystal clear waters, as well as mountains and thick jungle.
It attracted around 670 000 visitors and earned more than $18 billion (R2.8 trillion) from international arrivals in 2019, with authorities hoping to turn it into a tourist mecca in the style of Thailand's Phuket or Indonesia's Bali.
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