Vietnam has received more than 1.5 million international tourists in January, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent, the General Statistics Office announced on January 29.

The number of foreign holidaymakers rose 9.3 percent against December, with a strong surge seen the flow of tourists from Europe, America and Oceania as overseas Vietnamese have come home for the traditional Lunar New Year while in some European and American countries, people have higher demand for travelling abroad during their winter holidays. Visitors from Asian markets accounted for the lion’s share with over 1.1 million people, a 5.4 percent climb from the same period of 2018. The Republic of Korea surpassed China to become the largest source of foreign holidaymakers of Vietnam. Tourists from most of the major markets of Vietnam increased, including Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia. The number of tourists from Europe witnessed a slight growth of 3.1 percent. Some 6.6 million Vietnamese people spent their holidays domestically.-VNA