The original target was 4.2 million international visitors, a year – on-year increase of 10%, said Director General of VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan. "The sector will surely hit the 4.2 million target two months early," Tuan said.

"The tourism industry is highly sensitive to economic and financial changes," he said, noting that the global economic downturn last year had caused a significant decrease in the number of foreign visitors to Viet Nam.

And this year, along with the economic recovery, foreign arrivals had also increased strongly, he said.

Strengthening large scale promotions in key markets like France, the US, China, South Korea, Japan and ASEAN countries have also proved effective with the number of visitors from these markets increasing sharply.

Moreover, the unstable political situation in Thailand earlier this year made many visitors from Western Europe and North America shift their holiday destination to other countries including Viet Nam.

Tuan said that the tourism sector will continue to promote the country's image abroad with travel promotion programmes in potential markets like China, Northeast Asia, ASEAN and Western Europe.

The country welcomed over 3.8 million international visitors last year, down 11.5% from the previous year. International arrivals in the first eight months of this year reached 3.3 million, up 35.2% over the same period last year.

Viet Nam's tourism turnover in the first eight months of this year was VND64 trillion (US$3.28 billion), a year-on-year increase of 37.13%, meeting 80% of the annual plan, according to the VNAT.