Foreign tourists take a cyclo tour in Hue. More than 833,000 foreign visitors entered Vietnam in February, a 20 percent increase from 2015 (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The tourism sector will continue with extensive promotional activities to increase the number of foreign travellers to Vietnam, with focus on new and potential markets, according to an official of the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
Head of the VNAT’s Market Department Dinh Ngoc Duc told the Vietnam News Agency in a recent interview that besides the European and Northeast Asian markets, which contribute around half of international visitors to Vietnam, due attention will be paid to ASEAN member countries considering the formal establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community at the end of last year.
Another priority is Russia and countries using Russian, alongside Australia and India.
Duc said e-marketing will be spearheading promotional work, and the VNAT will mobilise resources from travel agencies, airlines and domestic and foreign partners to supplement the limited funding from the state budget for tourism publicity.
He added that the administration has proposed establishing a tourism development fund for the purpose.
The sector will go on with conventional promotional activities by attending tourism fairs and organising fam trips and press trips for both foreign and domestic travel agencies and media, according to Duc.
The official also informed that his agency is planning to propose visa exemption for tourists in package tours regardless of their citizenship, in order to facilitate both the organisation of such tours and the management of foreign visitors.-VNA
