The launch of direct air routes between India’s Mumbai and New Delhi and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City by India’s Jet Airways, starting on November 5, will support the pair in tapping their respective enormous tourism potential, said a Vietnamese diplomat.

Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh also suggested the opening of more routes connecting the two countries’ major cities during an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in New Delhi on November 4.

He stated that the Vietnamese Embassy in India will join in the effort to promote tourism with a plan to organise a workshop on November 24 to connect travel agencies from the two countries and launch a series of campaigns popularising Vietnam’s image in Indian cities in 2015.

Promoting tourism is a focus in the Embassy’s economic diplomatic activities, the Ambassador affirmed, noting the time-honoured friendship and the broadly growing strategic partnership could help both countries explore their huge tourism advantages.

India’s large population with 400-500 million people in the middle class, the country’s increasing number of holiday-makers choosing overseas destinations, and a rise in Vietnamese people making a pilgrimage to Buddhist relic sites in India, should be tapped, he said.

Thanh pledged that Indian media and travel companies will be fully supported when making market and destination surveys in Vietnam.

In addition, cultural exchanges and tourism information provision will be accelerated for the two countries’ holiday-seekers, he said.-VNA