The country’s largest tour operator, Saigontourist Holding Company, targets 10 percent growth for this year, its general director Nguyen Huu Tho has said.

Speaking at a company meeting in HCM City on Feb. 3, Tho said Saigontourist expects to serve 2.15 million domestic and foreign tourists and earn revenues of 9 trillion VND (487.3 million USD) this year.

To achieve the targets, his company would work with airlines, television channels, and others to strengthen marketing at home and abroad, he said.

It will join hands with hotels and other travel operators to offer a wider range of tours and work to improve the quality of tourism products and train human resources to better serve clients, he said.

Saigontourist planned to increase spending in other countries, especially in the US and Japan, to promote its brand and speed up construction and upgrade of its numerous hotels in HCM City and other major destinations to increase the number of luxury rooms to 2,500 by 2013.

Despite the economic difficulties, Saigontourist achieved a turnover of 8.2 trillion VND (443.9 million USD) last year, an increase of 6.9 percent over 2008, Tho told the year-end meeting.

It served 2.03 million guests, he said. Due to the global economic downturn. Vietnam saw only 3.77 million foreign arrivals last year, a 11 percent fall, while the number coming to HCM City was around 2.52 million, down 7 percent.

Saigontourist’s gross profit was 2.6 trillion VND and it paid more than 930 billion VND to the State budget, he added./.