This bought the total number of foreign visitors to Vietnam so far this year to 1.6 million, the ministry added.

Visitors from Cambodia recorded the largest year-on-year increase of 60 percent, followed by those from Thailand, (55 percent), the Republic of Korea and Russia, (53 percent), Japan and Malaysia, (34 percent), and the US, (27 percent).

Many upmarket hotels in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Nha Trang city in central coastal Khanh Hoa province were fully booked, despite a 15-20 percent increase in tour prices.

The Saigon Travel Service Company (Saigontourist) welcomed 1,250 foreign holidaymakers to Ho Chi Minh City on board the Costa Allegra cruise vessel on May 25.  It received more than 4,000 foreign visitors by sea in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 30 percent.