Overall view of the conference

Speaking at the conference, Director General of VNAT, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan spoke highly of close cooperation relationship between Viet Nam and Russia for years, particularly in tourism cooperation. In the 2011-2015 period, the number of Russian tourists to Viet Nam recorded year-on-year growth of 35.6 percent, from over 100,000 arrivals to nearly 340,000 arrivals. In the first quarter of 2016, Viet Nam received about 110,000 Russian arrivals, up 13 percent over the same period last year. Russia has become one of top 7 international source markets of  Viet Nam.

Recently, tourism infrastructure and facilities in Viet Nam have been improved to meet the increasing demand of tourists. Accommodation system has been developed in both quality and quantity. The number of qualified foreign language-speaking tour guides, including Russian-speaking tour guides has increased significantly. Furthermore, Viet Nam tourism sector is focusing on promoting 4 product types of sea, island tourism, culture tourism, nature tourism, and city tourism.

Director General of VNAT, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan spoke at the conference

According to Deputy Head of Russian Federal Agency for Tourism Sergei Korneev, the number of Russians travelling abroad saw a remarkable decrease (-40%) from the end of 2014 to 2015 due to economic difficulties, however, it has rapidly rebounded from the beginning of 2016. In addition, Russian tourists tend to seek new suitable destinations.

Mr. Sergey Korneev said Viet Nam is known as a safe, attractive destination with tourism products matching with Russian tourists’ taste. Viet Nam should continue to boost promotion, create proper tourism products with competitive prices, invest in large-scale hotels and full-package services and cooperate with tourism enterprises in Russia in order to attract Russian tourists.

He informed that a representative office of the FAT in Southeast Asia named “Visit Russia” is officially opened in Viet Nam on 14 April (at 49 Hai Ba Trung Street, Ha Noi City). This is the eighth representative office of the FAT in the world, aiming to introduce Russian tourism products to tourists in Viet Nam and the region.

Delegates took souvenir pictures

At the conference, Vice Chaiman of VITA, Mr. Vu The Binh announced that VITA has signed with Phu Yen, Binh Dinh provinces and tourism enterprises to launch some promotional programs for Russian tourists. Besides, VITA will support the FAT to hold promotion activities in Viet Nam; collaborate with Visit Russia to popularize Russian tourism to Vietnamese citizens. VITA also plans to establish Viet Nam – Russia outbound Club which will gather travel agencies in Viet Nam sending tourists to Russia. He proposed Russia to simplify the entry-exit procedures to facilitate travelling for Vietnameses.

All delegates highlighted the need of strengthening tourism cooperation between Viet Nam and Russia. The both sides should consider to facilitate travelling, simplify entry-exit procedures while raising responsibility of tourism enterprises in managing tourists abroad; create price-competitive tours; diversify tourism products; ensure security and safety of destinations; popularize tourism information; and host famtrips, presstrips...

Thanh Tam