Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan received visiting Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai in Hanoi on Apr. 20.

The Vietnamese Vice President expressed her wish that the UNWTO will give more help to Vietnam in building the country’s trademarks as well as training human resources for the tourism sector, and, especially, developing tourism while ensuring social welfare and protecting the environment.

The same day, UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai had talks with Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh and met with the media as part of his working session with the tourism sector.

Taleb Rifai expressed his wish that the UNWTO and Vietnam will further boost their cooperation.

Taleb Rifai said he had discussed with the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VAT) about carrying out some technical assistance projects to help Vietnam .

VAT asked UNWTO to send experts to help Vietnam in amending the Tourism Law and legal regulations relating to tourism, as well as making plans to develop regional tourist and tourist products.

The Vietnamese side also asked UNWTO to assist in developing a strategy to build and promote tourism brand names.

Taleb Rifai asked Vietnam to participate in the Global Leaders for Tourism Campaign to raise awareness and support from leaders in the world for tourism.

According to VAT, Vietnam welcomed over 1.87 million foreign arrivals in the first three months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 24.5 percent.

The tourism sector also served about 9.6 million local tourists in the reviewed period.

Vietnam has built a strategy to develop tourism for each period, which targets to receive between 10-10.5 million foreign visitors and 47-48 million local tourists by 2020 and generate tourism revenues of 18-19 billion USD.-VNA