The tourism sector grossed a turnover of 15,600 billion VND in the first nine months of the year, a significant figure after suffering the impact of the SARS epidemic that broke out in April.

This is the initial success that the sector has gained after SARS, an official from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said, adding that the result was partly due to the efforts made by the sector to attract tourists to Vietnam.

A substantial investment has been made on a Vietnamese tourism advertising campaign, including promotion run CNN, NHK and television channels in the United States, Japan and France.

Vietnam also attended a tourism fair in Malaysia and a tourism promotion programme in the United State last month.

At home, a wide range of tourism events were held in the northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Lao Cai and Lai Chau, the central provinces of Nghe An and Thua Thien-Hue, central Lam Dong province as well as in the Mekong Delta.

A special strategy to attract tourists from nearby markets, especially from Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) took place in the last five months.

The sector welcomed nearly 210,000 foreign tourists in September, bringing the total of foreign visitors to Vietnam to over 1.6 million in the past nine months. The number of tourists coming from Japan has increased 50.8 percent from the same period last year.

The number has increased 50 percent from the ASEAN countries, 35 percent from China, 31 percent from Poland, 27 percent from the Republic of Korea and Taiwan.

The sector is developing high-quality tourism services and opening new tours serving domestic and foreign tourists coming to Vietnam during, before and after the SEA Games.