(TITC) - On 10th March, 2022, in Ha Noi, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) had a courtesy meeting with Mr. Ganesh Dhakal, Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in Vietnam, on the occasion of Mr. Ganesh Dhakal assumes the duty.
Overview of the meeting (Photo: TITC)
Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, VNAT’s Chairman congratulated Mr. Ganesh Dhakal on his new duty, and said, the Vietnam tourism has been paid attention by the Government, with the aim to become the leading economic sector. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, in 2019, Vietnam tourism welcomed and served 18 million international visitor arrivals, 85 million domestic visitor arrivals, and the total tourism receipts reached over USD31.2 billion. The Vietnam tourism also received many awards from World Travel Awards, including: World's Leading Heritage Destination, Asia's Leading Heritage Destination, Asia's Leading Culinary Destination, Asia's Leading Cultural Destination, Asia's Leading Destination, Asia's Leading Sustainable Tourism Destination and other 2 biggest awards for golf are World's and Asia's Best Golf Destination.
Mr. Khanh shared that Vietnam tourism currently has been focusing on promoting 4 major categories of tourism products including cultural heritage, culinary, beach and city. Besides, there are many other attractive tourism products to meet diverse demands of visitors.
Promotion, advertisement and media communication activities are also enhanced by Vietnam tourism industry, especially, e-marketing, promotion on digital platforms, organising roadshows in target markets, participating in international tourism fairs, organising, and participating in domestic and international events, etc.
Vietnam and Nepal wish to promote the tourism cooperation in the near future (Photo: TITC)
The main markets of Vietnam tourism are Northeast Asia, ASEAN, Western Europe, Russia, the US, etc. and the market with great potential is India. Mr. Khanh emphasised that Vietnam and Nepal have had certain exchanges in tourism and it is expected to have great potential to promote cooperation for development, especially in spiritual tourism.
Mr. Khanh was happy to inform the Ambassador that the Vietnamese Government will resume fully tourism activities on 15th March 2022. Currently, many Vietnamese tourism businesses have reconnected to tourist markets. Many Vietnamese tourists are searching and booking tours abroad to discover and experience new and attractive tourist activities.
In order to strengthen the tourism cooperation relationship between two sides, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh hoped that today’s meeting will be an event that marks the opening of a new phase of stronger cooperation in tourism development. He supposed Mr. Ganesh Dhakal to work closely with the VNAT to exchange and promote tourism cooperation between the two countries in the near future.
Mr. Ganesh Dhakal, expressed the gratitude to the warm welcome of Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, VNAT’s Chairman. Mr. Ganesh Dhakal stated that Nepal tourism contributed 8% of the country’s GDP. Nepal has reopened to tourism since September 2021. In 2019, the number of international visitors to Nepal reached 1.197 million arrivals, the total tourism receipts was estimated at USD803 million.
Mr. Ganesh Dhakal, Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in Vietnam giving souvenir to Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, VNAT’s Chairman (Photo: TITC)
Nepal is famous for Lumbini, a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Lumbini Province, was recognised as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. According to the legend, Lumbini was the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, later on known as Shakyamuni Buddha. Lumbini International Airport has been built and expected to operate from May 2022, creating favourable conditions for tourists to travel, he shared.
The core tourism products of Nepal are spiritual tourism, wellness and meditation retreats. Besides, Nepal also develops adventure tourism for youngsters, landscape tourism, MICE tourism, wedding tourism, etc.
Mr. Ganesh Dhakal affirmed that, during his term, he will continue to promote cooperation with VNAT to enhance tourism activities, thereby increasing the exchanges of number of tourists between two sides.
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