On 20 April 2012, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) held a press conference on the occasion of the visiting to Viet Nam of Mr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
UNWTO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Madrid (Spain). UNWTO has the function of boosting the development of tourism; contributing to economic development, enhancing mutual understanding between nations towards peace, prosperity, mutual respect, respect for human and freedom, without discrimination of race, gender, language and religion.
In the press meeting, Mr. Taleb Rifai showed the importance of tourism to the world nowadays. Tourism industry is developing most strongly, which contributes about 3% - 5% of global GDP and 30% of services value. In 2011, there was over 900 million tourist arrivals worldwide and in this year, it is expected there would be over 1 billion tourist arrivals.
In Viet Nam, tourism has gained encouraging achievements in the past years. In the first quarter of 2012, the number of international tourists to Viet Nam reached 1,873,726 arrivals, the number of domestic tourists reached 9.6 million, total revenue was estimated at VND 41,100 billion, up 14.17% over the same period in 2011. Viet Nam tourism industry not only contributes significantly to GDP but also creates jobs for many labors, including women, youth, labors in rural and mountainous areas to bring for them a better and more sustainable life…
Mr. Taleb Rifai has pointed out the opportunities for cooperation between Viet Nam tourism sector and UNWTO. In the near future, UNWTO will help Viet Nam to adjust Tourism Law, plan to develop tourism in rural and mountainous areas, promote Viet Nam tourism to the world … through sending experts to assist the development of Viet Nam tourism products, train key staff, provide database, support the research and application of tourism satellite account…
Mr. Taleb Rifai also confirmed that Viet Nam is a country which has great potentials and advantages to develop tourism into a key economic sector and to create opportunities to cooperate with international partners. Besides, world tourism, including Viet Nam tourism will bring people closer together to learn, enhance mutual understanding and respect.
Translated by Thu Giang (TITC)