Myanmar's Shwedagon Pagoda attracted 445,000 foreign visitors in the first nine months of this year, according to the pagoda's Board of Trustee on Saturday.

Thailand topped the list with over 93,000 visitors, followed by China with 37,000 visitors and others from South Korea, Japan, France, Germany and the United States.

The board's figures also showed that more than 500,000 tourists from over 40 countries and regions visited the Shwedagon Pagoda annually.

Shwedagon Pagoda, usually crowded with visitors from home and abroad during the open season, features its best repository in Myanmar heritage, architecture, sculpture and arts.

It accommodates hundreds of colorful temples, stupas and statues that reflect the architectural era spanning almost 2,500 years.

Also, the country attracted over 2 million tourists as of August this year while tourist arrivals reached 2.9 million in 2016, ranking as the ninth among ASEAN countries with most tourist arrivals, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

The country targets to receive over 7 million visitors by 2020.

Meanwhile, 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.