Mr. Ha Van Sieu - Vice Chairman of VNAT speaking at the seminar

The seminar had the attendances of Mr. Ha Van Sieu - Vice Chairman of VNAT; Mr. La Quoc Khanh - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh’s City Department; Ms. Yang Xiuping - Secretary General of the ASEAN - China Centre (ACC); Mr. Wang Zheng Bao - Economic and Commercial Counselor of Chinese General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City; and representatives of Departments of Tourism, Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism of provinces/cities nationwide; tour operators, accommodation establishments, tourism investors, press at home and abroad.

The seminar aimed to enhance the exchange of research information on Chinese tourist market, introduce Chinese tourist market to inbound tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces/cities in Viet Nam, tourism research institutes and management agencies; thereby strengthening promotion of specific tourism products which are suitable to tastes of Chinese tourists and linkage among enterprises serving Chinese tourist market.

Overview of the seminar

Speaking at the seminar, Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu said that according to Tourism Marketing Strategy to 2020, Viet Nam tourism will give priority to markets in Northeast Asia, typically China - an important source market of Viet Nam tourism. Implementing this strategy, VNAT has conducted research on Chinese tourist market to create the basis for building suitable promotion solutions and gradually towards the high-end segment of this market. In addition, VNAT also actively participated in international fairs and expos in the two countries, welcomed famtrip delegations for press and tourism enterprises of the two countries, organized tourism roadshows, etc to enhance tourism promotion activities and development of tourism products.

China is considered the world’s leading tourist market with more than 120 million outbound tourist arrivals and the expenditure of over USD250 billion. It is forecasted that by 2025, there will be 220 million Chinese outbound tourist arrivals and the expenditure will reach USD450 billion. For Viet Nam, China is always the leading market sending visitors to Viet Nam, accounting for 22-26.9% of total of international visitor arrivals to Viet Nam in recent years. In 2016, Viet Nam welcomed nearly 2.7 million Chinese visitor arrivals, an increase of 51.4% over 2015. In the first eight months of 2017, there were more than 2.6 million Chinese visitor arrivals to Viet Nam, up 51% over the same period last year. Therefore, improving the efficiency of bilateral tourism cooperation and attracting Chinese visitors to Viet Nam are important solutions to achieve the goal of increasing international visitors to Viet Nam.

At the seminar, speakers and delegates discussed specific directions and solutions to attract the Chinese tourists, especially high-end segment (cruise tourism) to Ho Chi Minh City and also Viet Nam in the coming time.

Thu Giang