Viet Nam tourism’s booth in WTM 2015 (photo: Tourism Marketing Department)

The press conference attracted the participation of nearly 40 media agencies in the UK and Europe.

At the press conference, Mr. Ha Van Sieu - Deputy Director General of VNAT emphasized Viet Nam is one of the most attractive destinations in the world. Considering Europe as the key market in need of priority to tourism promotion, in recent years, Viet Nam has implemented solutions to attract visitors from this continent, notably visa waiver policy for a maximum of 15 days for citizens of 5 Western European countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) from July 1, 2015. Besides, direct flights between Europe and Viet Nam have increased. Specially, Viet Nam has focused on improving service quality, developing infrastructure and typical tourism products towards sustainable tourism development. As the result, in the recent years, the UK and Western European countries like France, Germany… have been in the top 15 largest source markets of Viet Nam. In 2014, the number of visitors from the UK to Viet Nam reached more than 200 thousand arrivals, up 9.5% over last year.

VNAT introduced Viet Nam’s tourism potentials, prominent tourism events in 2015 and 2016, main tourism products (culture tourism, sea-island tourism, eco-tourism and city tourism), new destinations and services expected to attract European visitors such as Son Doong Cave (Quang Binh Province), Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark (Ha Giang Province), admiring Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh Province) from seaplane, Phu Quoc tropical paradise (Kien Giang Province)…

On this occasion, Mr. Le Thanh Dung - Chief Representative of Vietnam Airlines in the UK introduced its new services and products, including the launch of new-generation Boeing 787-9 aircraft for the direct flights connecting Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and London and the increase of the frequency of flights.

Hong Nhung