Some 5.3 million foreign visitors came to the country in the first 11 months of 2011, up 15.9% year-on-year, and meeting the country's tourism target, according to the General Statistics Office.

Tourism, including domestic, earned an estimated VND110 trillion ($5.2 billion) or 4.5% of the nation's GDP, this year.

Of those coming to the country, 4.5 million arrived by plane, 20.8% up on last year. However, the number of visitors coming to the country by sea and road decreased by 30% and 2.9%, respectively, to 32,000 and 833,000.

Of those coming to the country, 3.2 million came for a holiday – up 13% against the same period last year – 890,000 came to visit relatives, and 887,000 arrived for business purposes.

China topped the tables, with 1.2 million visitors coming to the country, up 49% on last year. Meanwhile, there were 473,000 visitors from South Korea, up 5.1% on 2010.

Visitors from Japan, the US, France, Cambodia, Taiwan, Australia and Malaysia also surged significantly.