According to Nguyen Van Tuan, the General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the conference, the first of its kind to be held annually, is a practical and timely initiative to raise public awareness of responsible tourism in Vietnam that respects social and environmental principles.

The event offered an opportunity for partners in the tourism sector to plan approaches to the industry that minimizes its impact on the environment and local culture.

The European Union-funded "Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development" project aims to connect the private and state sectors to a shared vision and broad-based knowledge of responsible tourism.

At the conference, delegates agreed that Vietnam's tourism products are closely associated with the country's unique cultures and heritages. They acknowledged the tourism sector's frequent lack of strategic planning at both national and local levels and stressed that the quality and diversity of Vietnam's tourism products remain poor.

Delegates also learned more about the strategic approach to responsible tourism's development in Myanmar.

The EUR12.1 million project is the largest supported tourism programme in Vietnam with implementation already underway over the 2011-2015 period.

The project aims to introduce policies and encourage effective cooperative networks between the state and private sectors, build a qualified tourism human resource, hone the competitive edge of Vietnamese tourism, and raise public awareness about the demands of responsible tourism.