International visitor arrivals increased dramatically in September 2013. According to the preliminary monthly data from  the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), arrivals to the country totalled 614,830 in September 2013 – 28.9% more than the same month last year. And once again the growth was driven by two of the world’s biggest emerging markets – Russia and China. Arrivals from China, Vietnam’s biggest visitor source market, jumped 72.4% to 169,680, while the number of Russian visitors more than doubled (+106.5%) to 16,730, making it the country’s top European source market. There was also strong growth from Thailand (+14.2% to 20,410), Malaysia (+17.5% to 24,860), South Korea (+25.1% to 57,780), Japan (+10.1% to 57,010) and Australia (+10.6% to 24,540). For the first nine months of the year, Vietnam has now welcomed 5.49 million international visitors, 9.9% more than the same period last year. It is now on track to reach its annual target of 7.2m visitors for 2013. Source: Travel Daily