Out of 127 cities, Hanoi ranked 112^th and Ho Chi Minh City 105^th, announced the latest survey carried out by the magazine.

The latest statistics from the Hanoi Tourism Department showed that the city welcomed more than 15,200 international visitors in the first four days of the New Year, including the record numbers of visitors from the Republic of Korea, Japan and Australia.

Travel agencies and hotels have launched new tours and improved service quality in a bid to lure visitors arriving in Vietnam for the New Year.

In 2005, more than 1.1 million international tourists arrived in the capital city, accounting for more than 32 percent of total number visitors to Vietnam, generating tourism revenue of approximately VND11,250 billion.

However,  Cao Thi Ngoc Lan, deputy director of Hanoi Tourism Department has warned that Hanoi is likely to lack hotel rooms for tourists in 2006. She said the city now has 427 hotels and guest houses with 12,500 rooms, including 179 rated hotels with 8,722 rooms. Hotel occupation rates reach more than 70 percent and at times rise to 90-100 percent.

Currently, there are increasing numbers of tourists coming to the city but many of them have to travel to Quang Ninh province as they failed to book hotels in advance. With the current pace of investment, Hanoi will only meet the demands of around 1.6 million tourists by 2010, while around 1.8 million are expected to visit the city at that time.