HANOI — Vietnam is expected to welcome over 1.271 million person-times of Chinese visitors in the first four months of 2017, up 61.1 percent year-on-year, said the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on Thursday.

From January to April, the country's foreign arrivals are forecast to hit 4.284 million person-times, up 30.3 percent year-on-year.

Concerning markets of Vietnamese tourism in the first four months, China maintains the largest one with 1.271 million person-times during four-month period, followed by South Korea (701,837 person-times), Japan (261,571 person-times), Russia (230,946 person-times) and the United States (228,521 person-times) among others.

In April alone, Vietnam is likely to welcome 1.071 million person-times of foreign visitors, up 34 percent year-on-year, making it the fourth consecutive month in 2017 that the foreign arrivals surpass one million.