Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh said that to lure more foreign tourists, the tourism sector needs to boost tourism promotion to welcome fam-trip and press-trip delegations from major markets such as the RoK, Japan, Russia and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Minister Hoang Tuan Anh also said special road-shows must be organised to design specific tourism products to the Japanese and RoK markets.

On July 16, VietJet Air inaugurated a flight route from Da Nang to Incheon, RoK. On the same day, Vietnam Airlines officially inaugurated a new international flight route to Tokyo, Japan (Da Nang-Narita). This is Vietnam Airlines’ first flight route between Da Nang and Tokyo and the third international flight route from Da Nang, after the one leading to Siem Reap, Cambodia and Seoul, RoK. These new flight routes will contribute to promoting tourism between Japan, the RoK and Viet Nam’s central region.

Viet Nam expects to welcome 400,000 Russian tourists this year. Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism General Director Nguyen Van Tuan said: “Viet Nam considers Russia as a major source market and will provide special packages to attract tourists from this market. The long-standing cooperative relationship between Viet Nam and Russia offers favorable conditions for Viet Nam to attract Russian visitors.”

In the framework of Vietnamese Culture Days in Russia 2014, in early July, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced Vietnamese tourism products in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl.

Valery A. Korovkin, Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Federal Agency for Tourism under the Russian Ministry of Culture, said that Vietnam was a friendly country to Russian people and hoped the cooperation between tourism agencies of the two sides would be tightened.

Along with popularizing the image of Viet Nam’s tourism in foreign countries, stimulating domestic travel is an important strategy to maintain the continuous growth of the tourism sector, promoting its effective contribution to the Vietnamese economy. The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism recently launched a specific campaign aimed at encouraging Vietnamese people to travel around Viet Nam.

According to Nguyen Van Tuan, the number of domestic tourists taking domestic tours strongly increased in recent times, from one million in 1990 to 35 million in 2013. Increases in the number of tourists have promoted the growth of the tourism sector and its contribution to the national economy.

The campaign launched to encourage Vietnamese people to travel around Viet Nam will promote tours to coastal areas, islands and mountainous areas which have the potential for tourism development. It will also encourage overseas Vietnamese to visit their homeland.

In the last six months of 2014, the tourism sector will continue to implement its tasks in the framework of the National Action Plan on Tourism and the National Tourism Promotion Programme.

It will organise activities which are part of the National Tourism Year 2014 in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong and prepare for the National Tourism Year 2015 in Thanh Hoa.

In addition, it will complete the preparation of tourism development plans such as the master plan for tourism development in the Southeast Asian region and coastal areas of the South-central region towards 2020 with a vision to 2030, the master plan for development of national tourist sites such as Nui Ba Den in Tay Ninh Province and Son Tra in Da Nang.