HANOI, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Over 247,000 person-times of Chinese tourists visited Vietnam in January 2017, up nearly 68 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO) on Wednesday.

Among the one million person-times of foreign arrivals in Vietnam during the month, Chinese tourists accounted for about 25 percent.

The number of Chinese visitors was 2.7 times as many as those from Americas and the same as those from Europe and Oceania together, said GSO.

In 2016, Vietnam welcomed over 10 million person-times international tourists while Chinese tourists accounted for nearly 2.7 million person-times, marking the record growth from the market.

Data by the GSO in the past five years shows that each year, the number of Chinese tourists to Vietnam accounted for 20-25 percent of total foreign arrivals, registering the biggest market.

Vietnam targets to welcome 11.5 million person-times of foreign tourists in 2017.