Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – A webinar was held on October 8 todiscuss ways attracting Spanish tourists to Vietnam in new normal, especiallyafter the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.
The event was organised by the Institute for Tourism DevelopmentResearch (ITDR) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s VietnamNational Administration of Tourism (VNAT).
Speaking at the event, ITDR Deputy Director Do Thi Thanh Hoasaid in recent years, over 20 million Spanish people have travelled abroad, orhalf of its population. However, their arrivals in Vietnam remain modest,reaching 70,000 – 80,000 from 2016-2019.
As the European country has controlled the pandemic, its peoplewish to resume travelling so that Spain will be a target market of Vietnam inthe near future, she said.
Deputy head of the ITDR’s tourism market research and planningoffice Nguyen Quang Vinh said since 2018, Vietnam has unilaterally offered 15-dayvisa waiver to tourists from Western Europe including Spain.
In October 2018, the VNAT also held a programme to introduceVietnam’s tourism in Spain’s capital city of Madrid.
He suggested learning about changes in travel trend amongSpanish visitors following the pandemic to effectively attract them to thecountry.
According to the ITDR, the number of Spanish tourists to Vietnam rosecontinually from 2011-2019. They mostly like Vietnam’s traditional food andhandicrafts.
Statistics from the VNAT showed that there are about 17,000 tourguides for foreign tourists nationwide, but only 1.6 percent of them speakSpanish, predominantly in major cities and provinces.
Experts proposed increasing visa exemption for Spanish visitorsfrom 15 days to 30 days and increasing night tours to boost tourism receipts andprolong their stay./.
