HANOI - Over 1.468 million person-times of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Vietnam in the first seven months of 2016, up 54.5 percent year-on-year, said Vietnam's General Statistics Office (GSO) on Thursday.

During seven-month period, the country is likely to welcome over 5.552 million person-times of foreign tourists, up 24 percent year-on-year.

Among the figure, some 4.66 million person-times arrive in Vietnam by air, up 28.7 percent year-on-year. Other 806,400 person-times travel to Vietnam by road, up 8.2 percent year-on-year while some 86,300 person-times go to the country by sea, down 22.4 percent, said GSO on its website.

From January to July, tourists from Asian countries coming to Vietnam total at some 3.967 million person-times, up 29.5 percent year-on-year. Growth is seen in major markets including China (up 54.5 percent year-on-year), South Korea (up 37 percent), China's Taiwan (up 15.9 percent), Thailand (up 37.2 percent) among others.