Vice Chairwoman of the Quang Ninh Provincial People’s Committee Nhu Thi Hong Lien has noted the strength of the connectivity among East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum (EATOF) members in the tourism sector’s developments in the context of global economic difficulties.

Addressing the EATOF mayors’ meeting in Ha Long city in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh on Sept. 15, Vice Chairwoman Lien suggested EATOF increase the exchange of information through fairs and major events of each country and promote bilateral cooperation among EATOF member provinces.

EATOF member nations should select typical programmes of each locality for exchanging experiences, she said.

For his part, Vice Mayor of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Gangwon province Kang Ki-Chang, suggested changing tourism environments, upgrading tourism infrastructure and increasing coordination among EATOF member countries as solutions to developing tourism.

EATOF member countries should preserve and bring into play cultural and tourism values with a focus on green tourism and tourism for the community’s interest while updating tourism information and advertising tourism on the Internet, he said.

The participants also put forward recommendations to boost connectivity and cooperation within EATOF.

At the meeting, the mayors voted for Ha Long Bay as a world natural wonder and signed a joint declaration for sustainable development in East Asia .

EATOF bilateral meetings between member provinces also took place on Sept. 15./.