HANOI, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam currently has over 20,000 tour guides including some 19,000 amateur ones, meeting only one-thirds of the demand, local media reported on Tuesday.

To receive 13 million foreign visitors and 70 million domestic ones this year as planned, Vietnam will need at least 25,000 tour guides in charge of serving foreigners, and 50,000 guides in charge of serving Vietnamese people, daily newspaper Thanh Nien (Young People) quoted local tourism experts as saying.

According to Vietnam's Tourism Law which will take effect from next January, to work as tour guides, besides tour guide cards, people should have labor contracts with travel agencies, or organizations, or individuals who manage tourism sites, or be members of relevant social-professional organizations.

Since 2016, the Travel Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has detected 393 cases of using fake university diplomas to ask for tour guide cards.

In the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam welcomed nearly 10.5 million international arrivals, up 28.1 percent on-year, with the highest growth of 53.9 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, followed by China (up 45.6 percent), and Russia (up 38.3 percent), said the administration.