HANOI, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's national tourism year 2019 will feature many sea-related activities in central Khanh Hoa province and 15 other localities, the provincial authorities said on Monday.

With the theme "Nha Trang -- Khanh Hoa Sea Festival," the national tourism year 2019 will include a sea festival slated for next May in Khanh Hoa province's Nha Trang city, a conference on developing the central coastal region, a beer festival, a large-scale beauty contest, a sea tourism festival, and an international yacht race from China's Hong Kong to Nha Trang.

Khanh Hoa, home to over 680 hotels and mini hotels with 31,700 rooms, received more than 5 million visitors, including 1.7 million foreigners, in the first nine months of this year. The province plans to welcome 8.5 million tourists, including 3.5 million foreigners, and make tourism revenues of 70 trillion Vietnamese dong (over 3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020.

Between January and September, Vietnam hosted more than 11.6 million international arrivals, up 22.9 percent year-on-year, with the highest growth of 49.6 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, followed by Finland, up 33.8 percent, and China, up 29.7 percent, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Vietnam plans to receive 16-17 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic ones, and gain tourism revenues of 27.5 billion dollars this year, said the administration.