YANGON, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar attracted over 3.55 million foreign visitors in the whole 2018, according to the figures from the Hotel and Tourism Ministry on Saturday.

During the period, China topped the list of Asian travellers with 297,400 visitors, followed by Thailand with 291,231 visitors.

Last year's figures showed 3.15 percent increase of foreign visitors compared with the whole 2017 when it showed about 3.44 million.

Starting from Oct. 1, last year, Myanmar has been granting visa exemption to Japanese and South Korean visitors as well as visa-on-arrival to Chinese travellers.

Aiming to attract more visitors, the country is striving to promote eco-tourism, cultural tourism and community-based tourism in resource-rich areas such as historical landscapes, rivers, lakes, beaches, islands and forests.