The dialogue had the attendances of Director General of VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan, Deputy Director General of VNAT Ha Van Sieu and representatives of departments under VNAT; Vice Chairwoman of Viet Nam Hotel Association Le Mai Khanh; representatives of high-class hotels in Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Lao Cai and press agencies.

Director General of VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan speaks at the dialogue

At the dialogue, Director General of VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan announced some policies of Viet Nam to create favorable conditions for attracting international tourists, especially tourists from European market. Especially, Resolution No. 39/NQ-CP dated 1 June 2015 and Resolution No. 46/NQ-CP dated 18 June 2015 of Vietnamese Government on visa exemption for Belarusian citizens (from 1 July 2015 to end of 30 June 2020) and for citizens of 5 Western European countries U.K, France, Germany, Spain and Italy (from 1 July 2015 to end of 30 June 2016). Earlier, on 8 December 2014, the Government issued Resolution No. 92/NQ-CP on some solutions to foster Viet Nam tourism development in the new period, focusing on 5 main solution groups, namely: raising social awareness about tourism development; increasing the support of the State to develop tourism; creating favorable conditions and ensuring security, safety to attract tourists and develop tourism; supporting to remove difficulties for tourism enterprises; strengthening State management on tourism. In addition, Prime Minister issued Directive No. 14/CT-TTg dated 2 July 2015 on improving State management efficiency, overcoming some weaknesses, fostering tourism development, of which focusing on managing service prices in tourist sites and areas; and ensuring security, safety, tourism environmental hygiene.

According to General Director, from now to the end of 2015, VNAT will organize and participate in some tourism promotion activities for European market such as: welcoming the presstrip delegations from France, Germany and some other Europe countries (October); organizing press conference on introducing Viet Nam tourism to European tourists living in Singapore (25 October); roadshow campaigns in France, Germany, Spain (25 October – 1 November); participating in World Tourism Mart 2015 in U.K and organizing international press conference on introducing tourism policies and products of Viet Nam (2 – 6 November)...

Deputy Director of Tourism Marketing Department Le Tuan Anh presents at the dialogue

Deputy Director of Tourism Marketing Department Le Tuan Anh presented at the dialogue the action plan on enhancing promotion activities to attract European tourists in the future, including working with embassies of Europe countries in Viet Nam; building information on visa exemption policy and relevant information; enhancing information coordination and propaganda on the visa exemption policy for citizens of 5 Western European countries; international press conference on introducing the visa exemption policy and the action plan to strengthen attract tourists to Viet Nam; international press conference on introducing tourism policies and products of Viet Nam; organizing the programs to launch the markets and meet among European tourism enterprises; welcoming the presstrip/famtrip delegations to Viet Nam; coordinating and supporting promotion activities of Vietnamese airlines, ministries, localities and enterprises; promoting regional connectivity through cooperation with national tourism organizations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

The representative of 5-star hotel in Ha Noi discusses at the dialogue

The participants also gave some suggestions, such as building long-term plan so that high-class hotels support to promotion activities of Viet Nam tourism; providing monthly tourism newsletters for the hotels to update the latest information and tourism development policies of Viet Nam; providing the schedule of international tourism fairs with VNAT’s participation to publish on websites of hotels; simplifying visa procedures to create favorable conditions for international tourist  s to Viet Nam; increasing duration of visa exemption for citizens of European countries; increasing the frequency of direct flights between Europe and Ha Noi... The representatives of high-class hotels in Ha Noi affirm that they will support VNAT in welcoming famtrip/presstrip delegations to Viet Nam; and actively participate in roadshows, tourism promotion activities in Europe countries.

Director General Nguyen Van Tuan appreciates the support of 5-star hotels in Ha Noi in contributing to positioning the image and brand of Viet Nam tourism in the recent time. Director General also hopes that the hotels will join together to rehabilitate and foster international tourists to Viet Nam, especially European tourists.

Thu Giang
Photo: Pham Phuong