He stressed the desire to co-operate with Vietnam to boost the tourismindustries of the two countries during a conference hosted by the ChineseEmbassy in Hanoi and the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
“There are direct flights from Hanoi and HCM City to Sichuan,” he said. “In thenear future, with direct flights connecting Da Nang and Nha Trang to Sichuan,we believe that we can have more tourists from Vietnam and vice versa.”
Dou said Vietnam has many beautiful destinations that attract Sichuan people,for example Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province and Trang An Complex in Ninh BinhProvince.
“I had a chance to visit Hanoi and the Old Quarter, I realise that there aremany similarities between people in Hanoi and Sichuan,” he said.
“With effort to lure more Vietnamese tourists to Sichuan, we have specialoffers for travel agents and businesses from Vietnam, we will also organisesome familiarisation trips for travel companies and press from Vietnam to visitSichuan.”
For his part, Ha Van Sieu, vice chairman of the VNAT, said he also had abusiness trip to Sichuan and acknowledged that there are many big attractionsto tourists in general and Vietnamese people in particular.
“I feel impressed with destinations of Sichuan, especially the World HeritageSites such as Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, Jiuzhaigou Valley and LeshanGiant Buddha,” he said.
“It takes only two hours to fly between Sichuan and Việt Nam. With close distanceand culture, we have many good conditions to boost tourism of the two sides.”
Early this month, the VNAT hosted a conference to introduce Vietnamese tourismin Sichuan. The VNAT and the Sichuan Department of Culture and Tourism signedan agreement to co-operate to promote tourism on May 17.