HO CHI MINH CITY, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Every foreign visitor to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City spent, on average, 145 U.S. dollars per day, Vietnam News Agency cited a survey jointly conducted by the municipal Tourism Department and the Statistics Office in 2017 on Wednesday.

Their accommodation spending was the largest expense (33 percent), followed by food and beverage services (20 percent), shopping (18 percent) and travelling (10 percent),

Overseas visitors who spent 4-7 days in the city accounted for 48 percent of all foreign visitors, while those who stayed 8-14 days made up 40 percent.

Sixty-nine percent of foreign tourists chose more flexible "free and easy" tours, while the remaining 31 percent joined group tours.

Last year, Ho Chi Minh City hosted nearly 6.4 million international arrivals and 24.9 million domestic visitors.

In the first six months of this year, the city welcomed over 3.8 million foreign visitors, up 26.5 percent on-year, according to the department.

Meanwhile, its tourism revenue stood at 62.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (2.7 billion U.S. dollars), up 15.7 percent on-year.

Vietnam plans to receive 16-17 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic ones, and reap tourism revenues of 27.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.