A Vietnamese tourist in the Republic of Korea (RoK). (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and the Korea Tourism Organisation of the Republic of Korea (KTO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bolstering tourism cooperation in Hanoi on September 28.
Accordingly, the two sides will share information related to tourism policies, market trends, statistics, bolster exchanges among businesses in the fields, and jointly organise promotion activities like tourism fairs, seminars and farmtours, among others.
Under the MoU, members of VITA will receive support in developing tours to the RoK, improving the quality of tourism programmes and ensuring rights and benefits for Vietnamese tourists when travelling to the RoK, while enhancing service quality for Korean tourists in Vietnam.
Vu The Binh, Chairman of VITA, said the MoU is a foundation for the two sides to develop professional tourism programmes, covering market research, product building, advertisement and tour operation.
The deal is also expected to promote outbound and inbound tours in a heathy manner, making the RoK the biggest source of tourists to Vietnam, and also a popular destination for Vietnamese holidaymakers, he added.
He further said the RoK is a key market for Vietnamese tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic, while highlighting the growing sports tourism trend, such as golf tourism that Korean tourists choose when visiting Vietnam.
At the signing ceremony of the MoU between the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and the Korea Tourism Organisation of the Republic of Korea (KTO). (Photo: VietnamPlus)
Lee Jae Hoon, head representative of KTO in Vietnam, expressed his hope that the two sides will proactively exchange tourism information as well as human resources, market trend and tourism policies in order to improve the RoK’s tourism quality and better serve Vietnamese tourists.
Besides, the RoK’s tourism businesses will actively participate in fairs, tourism promotion conferences held by both sides, bolster collaboration between KTO and VITA through business to business (B2B), Business To Consumer (B2C) events and farmtrips, among others.
Lee also highlighted the important role of the press circle in promoting tourism exchanges between the two countries.
The number of Vietnamese tourists to the RoK is expected to reach 310,000 by the end of September. (Photo: VietnamPlus)
The number of Vietnamese tourists to the RoK is expected to reach 310,000 by the end of September, while about 2.57 million tourists from the Northeast Asian country visited Vietnam in the period.
Notably, Vietnam expects to welcome 1 million golf players from the RoK, and some 3-3.2 million vacationers from the country this year.
Around 8.9 million foreign tourists travelled to Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, a 4.7-fold increase compared to the figure of the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
However, the figure was equal to 69% of the number in the same period of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
In September alone, the country welcomed more than 1 million foreign visitors, down 13.4% month-on-month.
In the January-September period, 87.5% of foreign tourists chose to travel to Vietnam by air, 11.8% by road, and the remainders by sea.
Revenue from accommodation and catering services in this period rose by 16%, and earnings from travel and tourism services surged by 47.7% from a year earlier./.
