China topped the list of most visitors to the country with 527,140 followed by the US with 230,940 and South Korea with 211,510 according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). Despite this overall increase, there has been a decrease in the number of business visitors by 8.6 per cent to nearly 304,150.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) recently forecast that Vietnam will receive 3.36 million foreign arrivals in 2005, 3.64 million in 2006 and 3.89 million in 2007.