Viet Nam welcomed 587,400 international tourists in March, an increase of 1.6 per cent compared with the same period last year, with over 30,600 of them from Russia, a year-on-year increase of up to 80.3 per cent.

In the first three months, the number of Russian tourists reached 85,000, a rise of 50.8 per cent year-on-year, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

Russia becomes one of the top five tourist groups to Viet Nam, together with China (130,000), South Korea (67,700), Japan (58,000) and the US (37,000).

However, with a decline in arrivals from other major markets, the total number of foreign tourists visiting Viet Nam in the first three months is only 1.8 million, down 3.9 per cent year-on-year. In the same period last year, the country had year-on-year growth of 24.5 per cent in international tourist arrivals.-VNS