Of this, 552,098 were made up of foreign tourists (32 per cent from China, 28 per cent from Australia and 14 per cent from Japan), a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent.

Thanks to significantly increased visitor numbers, hotel capacity reached 60.62 per cent, a year-on-year increase of 3.56 per cent.

Hanoi aims to welcome 13.25 million visitors in total, including 1.75 million foreign tourists, during the year.

The city has also set a target of welcoming 16 million visitors, including 2 million foreign tourists, by 2015.

A tourism promotion campaign, set to run from 2011-15, coupled with an international tourism fair and a Hanoi eating and drinking festival, will assist the city in successfully reaching its targets.

(Source: VNS)