HANOI, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is expected to welcome the biggest-ever 13 million international arrivals in 2017, posting the highest-ever growth of 30 percent against 2016, the National Administration of Tourism on Friday.

Vietnam is set to make total tourism revenues of over 500 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 23 billion U.S. dollars), contributing around 7 percent of its gross domestic product this year.

To lure more foreign visitors, Vietnam will continue to promote its destinations both at home and abroad, especially in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, improve quality of aviation, customs, accommodation and tourism services, and ensure security and safety at places of interests, said the administration.

Vietnam hosted more than 11.6 million international arrivals in the first 11 months of this year, up 27.8 percent on-year, with the highest growth of 55.3 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, followed by China (up 44.9 percent) and Russia (34.8 percent).

Last year, Vietnam received over 10 million foreign visitors, including 2.7 million Chinese tourists, posting respective rises of 26 percent and 51.4 percent.