Of this figure, the numbers of foreign arrivals in March reached 820,480, 1.6 per cent lower than February, but still 28.3 per cent higher than 2015’s March.

In March, Chinese visitors topped Vietnam’s international arrivals, with 214,067 visitors, followed by South Korean holidaymakers with 116,593 people and Japan with 69,287 visitors.

The GSO said that in the first three months of this year visitors travelling by sea reduced significantly by 41.1 per cent over the same period last year, while visitors arriving by air increased 16.8 per cent and arrivals by road soared 50.5 per cent.

According to statistics from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, total income from tourists in the first quarter of this year reached VND109.14 billion (US$4.88 million), up 21.2 per cent over the same period in 2015.

Vietnam expects to attract 8.5 million foreign visitors in 2016, about six per cent higher than 2015.