Foreign arrives into Vietnam increased by 50.3% year on year to 440,000 in May, bringing the total number of foreign arrivals to 2.2 million in the first five months of the year or 37.7% over the same period last year.

Tourists mostly came from China, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, France, Malaysia and the US, among which the northern neighbouring China took the lead with a surge of 111%, showed statistics released by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Ho Chi Minh City was a key destination, which drew 1.3 million foreign tourists, making up more than half of the total figure in the last five months.

Major celebrations, especially the 35th anniversary of Southern Vietnam liberation in April 30, were attributable to a surge of foreign tourists in May.

Long holidays on April 30-May 1 have also led to a surge in domestic vacation makers. The increase even doubled in popular sites such as the mountain resort of Sapa in the northern province of Lao Cai, the Nha Trang Bay in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa and the French-styled Dalat mountain resort in the Central Highlands of Lam Dong.

Some sites of big tourist interests were fully packed, pushing tour prices up by 20-30%.

In an effort to speed up the growth trend, many travel agencies in conjunction with local administrations have launched promotion campaigns.

The central port city of Danang offers a big sale-off programme for goods and services in August and September with discounts ranging from 5 to 25%.

The central coastal province of Khanh Hoa has launched a series of promotion campaigns, offering 30-50 discounts in tours costs, restaurants and entertainment services for international flight passengers who land at the international Cam Ranh airport and book hotels of three stars upwards in Khanh Hoa.