Vietnam is estimated to welcome over 2.6 million international arrivals in the first 11 months of this year, a year-on-year surge of 23.9 percent, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) told Xinhua on Wednesday.

China`s mainland, the United States, and Japan were Vietnam`sbiggest tourism markets in the period, with the numbers of visitors rising by 19.1 percent to 715,000, some 27.7 percent to 247,000 and 29.8 percent to 244,000, respectively, the administration said.

Among the 2.6 million foreign visitors, the number of tourists increased the most -- by 33.2 percent to over 1.4 million, followed by overseas Vietnamese returning home to visit relatives by 22.1 percent to 421,000, and business visitors by 11.9 percent to 472,000, it noted.

We aims to welcome 2.8 million international arrivals and record tourism revenues of 25 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) or nearly 1.6 billion US dollars this year, the VNAT said, adding that the figures are expected to climb to 3-3.5 million visitors and over 2 billion dollars next year.

To this end, Vietnam will next year invest some 550 billion VND(nearly 35 million dollars) in tourism facilities, mainly in tourist sites in its central region, and focus on raising tourism service quality and personnel capacity, the VNAT said.

According to a recent assessment by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Vietnam`s annual tourism growth rate will reach 8.3 percent in the next 10 years, ranking the fourth after Montenegro, China, and India.