(TITC) – On September 5, 2018, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in collaboration with Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee held opening ceremony of the 14th International Travel Expo – Ho Chi Minh (ITE-HCMC) 2018 and Gala Dinner themed “Viet Nam Culinary delights”.
ITE HCMC 2018 takes place from September 6-9 (Photo: Ngoc Phuong)
Giving opening speech, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien impressed that ITE HCMC 2018, themed ‘Your Gateway to Tourism in Asia’, aims to connect Ho Chi Minh City of Viet Nam with other destinations in the region to bring exciting experiences to international visitors. The event is also a professional platform for tourism authorities and businesses to meet and seek opportunity of development cooperation.
The success of the event will affirm a sustainable, quality and competitive tourism sector which contribute to developing tourism into a spearhead economy sector of the country.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien gave opening speech (Photo: Ngoc Phuong)
In his speech, Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien shared the positive performance of Viet Nam tourism. Accordingly, in the 8 first months of 2018, Viet Nam received over 10 million international arrivals, increasing 22.8% over the same period last year. Particularly, on September 3, Viet Nam was honored as “Asia’s leading destination” at the 25th annual World Tourism Awards (WTA) 2018.
According to Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong, Ho Chi Minh City has been increasingly attracting domestic and international tourists. Also, the city has been listed as the third best Asian Tourist Spot in 2018 by the popular tourism website – Lonely Planet (UK). Highly valued the effective cooperation of neighboring countries including Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong emphasized ITE HCMC has been an important tourism event not only of Viet Nam, but also of the 5 countries in Mekong region.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong (Photo: Ngoc Phuong)
Taking place from September 6-9, 2018, ITE HCMC includes a chain of activities such as seminar on introducing destinations of Viet Nam; photo exhibition of Viet Nam tourism themed “Viet Nam – great journey; Travel Fun Fair Day for consumers, etc.
At the gala dinner, international delegates also had opportunity to enjoy unique and diversified cuisines of Viet Nam.
Thanh Tam