Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan – Chairman of Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism

The workshop aimed at disseminating the guidance of 8 ASEAN Tourism Standards, introducing sustainable tourism products and good practices, honoring winners of ASEAN Tourism Awards, discussing solutions and sharing experiences of awardees, and encouraging the implementation of ASEAN standards.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan – Chairman of VNAT informed that the ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016 – 2025 prioritized the development of sustainable and green tourism. To realize this goal, ASEAN approved 8 ASEAN Tourism Standards, which reflected the common perspective towards sustainable and responsible tourism development.

Chairman Nguyen Van Tuan emphasized that Viet Nam tourism has been growing strongly in recent years, with the boom of high quality accommodation facilities. This brought opportunities along with challenges in terms of environmental protection issues. Therefore, it is necessary to implement ASEAN Tourism Standards, especially in the hospitality industry in order to mitigate negative impacts in the process of operation and development.

At the workshop, VNAT also honored 14 winners of ASEAN Tourism Awards 2018, which were annouced at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2018 in Thailand in January this year, including 5 ASEAN Green Hotel Awards; 1 ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Award; 5 MICE Venue Awards and 3 ASEAN Clean Tourist City Awards.

Hong Nhung