The participants in the ceremony included Chairman of Vietnam Society of Travel Agencies Vu The Binh; Editorial Director of Tourist Newspaper Nguyen Dai Bang and leaders VNAT's departments, representatives of tourism businesses and press agencies. 
 

The event is annually organized by VNAT in order to select remarkable tourism events and overview achievements of tourism sector.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Cuong appreciated the contribution of press agencies to the development of tourism sector. In recently years, great efforts of press agencies have been seen in introduction of natural and cultural potentials, friendiness and hospitality of Viet Nam people as well as negative impacts of tourism. Thanks to these efforts, administrative management has been renovated and service quality has been improved. He also hoped that press agencies continue to reflect the positive and negative tourism facts in order to improve tourism services, contributing development of tourism sector to be a key economic industry of Viet Nam.

At the ceremony, Mr. Bang announced 10 remarkable tourism events in 2012 as follows:

1. In 2012, Viet Nam received 6.847 million international arrivals and 32.5 million domestic tourist trippers, gained revenue of 160,000 billion VND. In the context of economic recession in the world, it is a big success for the tourism industry to fulfill the target of 2012.

2. The success of National Tourism Year of the North Central - Hue 2012 under the theme "Heritage tourism" with nearly 30 culture, sports, tourism events being held throughout the year, bearing the characteristics of Northern Central provinces, especially Hue culture in harmony with Vietnamese culture.

3. Ha Long Bay has officially been recognized as the new natural wonder of the world, appreciating the outstanding value of Ha Long Bay, which contributes to attract domestic and foreign tourists to the site.

4. The International Tourism Expo ITE - HCM City 2012 from September 13 to 15, with the theme "Four countries - One destination." The event attracted the participation of more than 500 businesses, travel agencies, press media from over 30 countries and territories worldwide. After eight times organized, ITE - HCM City has become a professional and prestigious tourism event in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

5. Viet Nam tourism chose new slogan and logo for period 2012-2015. Logo: a blooming lotus with five petals. Slogan: Vietnam - Timeless charm.

6. Three hotels in Vietnam have been named in the 2012 T+L 500 list following the selection of readers of the famous Travel + Leisure magazine. These are  Sofitel Legend Metropole (Ha Noi), Park Hyatt (Ho Chi Minh City) and The Nam Hai (Hoi An City). 

7. Viet Nam tourism sector organized effective promotion campaigns in key international markets as WTM (UK), ITB (Germany), MITT (Russia), JATA (Japan), EXPO (South Korea)... contributing to the growth of international visitors to Vietnam in 2012.
 

8. Tourism sector has suceeded in building standard toilets in 50% of tourist sites.

9. Da Nang City, Binh Thuan and Khanh Hoa provinces made breakthroughs to become important tourist destinations of the central region and Viet Nam.

10. Vietnam Tourism Awards 2011 have been granted to 52 leading tourism businesses.  The awards praise achievements of tourism businesses in order to impulse emulation, creativeness, honour value of trade brands, and improve competitiveness of tourism businesses.

Hong Thanh