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A tourist visits Ta Phin village in northern Lao Cai province.

VietNamNet Bridge - Viet Nam plans to welcome 4.2 million international tourists and 27 or 28 million domestic tourist this year, said Nguyen Van Tuan, director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, yesterday in Ha Noi.

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Tuan was speaking at a press conference to announce the stimulus package and plans for this year under the name "Your destination Vietnam". The country received about 900,000 international visitors mostly from Japan, South Korea, China and ASEAN in the first two months of this year, an increase of 27 per cent over the same term last year.

Tuan estimated that tourism turnover will reach VND80 trillion (US$4.2 billion) this year.

He said last year's stimulus package for tourism had brought incredible advantages to the local market with the number of domestic tourists travelling to various destinations around Viet Nam increasing.

Despite the crisis, Viet Nam received 3.8 million international and 25 million domestic tourists with a turnover of VND70 trillion($3.7 billion) last year, a growth of 9 per cent over 2008, added Tuan.

In the international market, Tuan said the administration would focus on large scale promotions in key markets such as France and the US. Tuan told Vieât Nam News that they would open their biggest ever road show in Paris to promote Viet Nam.

Last year, the budget for tourism promotion came too late, which caused a lot of difficulties but this year, we have received money early for our programme.

Tuan predicted that tourism would increase in March and April then reduce in May and June.

Tuan said: "We are working with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to organise our first ever sale month to attract more visitors to Viet Nam."

According to Nguyen Minh Tam, head of the Tourism Department, the VNA has co-operated closely with the administration to attract more visitors.

The VNA will run promotions advertising price reductions of more than 50 per cent for local flights from March to December this year.

"We will also work to promote local tourism in other countries with inviting packages to Viet Nam," said Tam.

Domestic tourists really helped the tourism industry last year and they continue to be our focus this year, Tuan said.

To better serve the tourists, our administration will urge localities to improve their facilities and infrastructure, especially substandard toilet facilities which can discourage tourists.

Tuan said the administration will launch a special cable TV channel on tourism, in co-operation with Vietnamese Television in April on the occasion of the Hung King's Death Anniversary.

VietNamNet/VNS