(VNF) - Total foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam in the first three months this year reached more than 2 million, a year-on-year reduction of 13.7%, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Of this, the arrivals visiting the country by air were 1.7 million, down 8% while those coming by sea and road represented a 36.7% decrease at over 18,000 and a 35.8% drop at over 289,000, respectively.

In the first quarter this year, eight markets witnessed an increase in tourist arrivals to Vietnam, including the Republic of Korea (31.4%), Finland (28.2%), Spain (10.8%), Singapore (7.1%), Italy (6%), the US (2.9%), Japan (0.8%) and Germany (0.2%).

According to GSO, the tourism sector served 19.5 million domestic tourists during the period, of which tourists staying overnight reached 8.7 million. The sector earned more than VND96.3 trillion (USD4.5 billion), up 1.9 percent from the same period of 2014./.

( VNF )