Hanoi, Feb 28 (IANS): Vietnam saw 933,000 international arrivals in February, surging 31.6 times compared to the same period last year, the country's General Statistics Office (GSO) said on Tuesday.

The surge in tourists is due mainly to the country's full reopening to foreign visitors and the resumption of international commercial flights, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the period, foreign arrivals to Vietnam by air accounted for 89.6 per cent of the total, followed by road with 9.6 per cent and sea routes with 0.8 per cent, respectively.

Most of the arrivals were from Asia with around 74 per cent, the data showed.

Foreign arrivals to the country in the first two months of this year increased to 1.8 million, or a 36.6-fold jump from the same period in 2022, but still below 60 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, said the GSO.

As global airline traffic is on the way to full recovery, the country's air passenger traffic jumped to nearly 20 million in the January-February period, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said, with 22 civil airports handling 4.7 million international passengers and 14.8 million domestic passengers.

About 3.7 million international tourists arrived in 2022 and Vietnam is targeting foreign arrivals of 8 million in 2023, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.