The result stemmed from a visa exemption programme launched in July 2015 which granted visa waivers to citizens of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism hoped that the visa waiver and tourism stimulus programmes would attract 1.1 million arrivals from those markets in the next few years, up 50 percent from 2015.
Vietnam now has visa waivers in place for 22 countries, including nine member states in the Association of South East Asian group.
The country expects to welcome 8.5 million foreign visitors and 60 million domestic travellers by the end of this year, earning a total VND370 trillion (US$16.8 billion) in revenue.
