(TITC) - On 25th April 2023, in Nha Trang City, under the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST), Culture Newspaper associated with Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Tourism and relevant units to organise the Conference on “Aviation-Tourism Cooperation: Solutions to attract international tourists”.
MOCST’s Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet speaking at the event (Photo: VHO)
This is an important event to implement the conclusion of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the 3rd National Conference on Tourism taking place on 15th March 2023 with the theme "Accelerating the recovery - Speeding up the development" in order to contribute to attracting international visitors to Vietnam.
The conference attracted about 250 delegates representing ministries and localities, representatives of local departments of tourism management, Tourism Associations, travel and aviation businesses, press agencies, and tourism experts, etc.
Mr. Le Huu Hoang, Standing Vice Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee speaking at the event (Photo: VHO)
Giving his opening remarks, MOCST’s Deputy Minister Doan Van Viet stated, in the period of 2015 - 2019, Vietnam's tourism industry has developed rapidly; with an average growth rate of the number of international visitor arrivals was 22.7% per year; contributing 9.2% to GDP in 2019 and gradually asserting its position and role in as a key economic sector. However, since the beginning of 2020, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry's growth indicators have all dropped seriously.
Delegates chairing the conference (Photo: VHO)
In 2022, right after the restoration of tourism from 15th March 2022, the government has issued policies to create favourable conditions to attract international tourists to Vietnam.
VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu speaking at the event (Photo: VHO)
In his Welcoming speech, Mr. Le Huu Hoang, Standing Vice Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee emphasised, in the period of 2021 - 2025, Khanh Hoa has focused on building a tourism development strategy, with the goal of diversifying the tourist markets, focusing on attracting domestic visitors and gradually recovering international tourist markets with a large number of visitors to Khanh Hoa in recent years such as Russia, Eastern Europe, Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand… and targeting to a number of potential markets such as: India, Japan, Australia, Taiwan (China).
Through the discussion at the conference, opinions and solutions of experts, management agencies, aviation businesses, tourism businesses and delegates for cooperation between the aviation and tourism industries will contribute to soon restore tourist markets, develop the tourism industry in the whole country in general and Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa in particular.
According to VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu, international visitors to Vietnam via airways account for the highest portion (about 80% in 2019). Therefore, aviation and tourism have a close and inseparable relationship in the development process. In different stages, the travel industry and airlines always have cooperation programmes to develop together.
During the pandemic period, aviation and tourism industries cooperated closely to seek for solutions to restore the operations, including study and coordinate in building a roadmap to open tourism corresponding to operating international commercial flight routes as well as unifying policies for tourists between the tourism industry and the aviation industry to create favourable conditions for tourists and enterprises.
After more than a year of the restoration of international flight routes and tourism activities, aviation has made a great contribution to promote transport, trade, connectivity, global economic integration, and ensure national competitive advantage.
In order for the tourism industry to achieve the goal of serving 102 million domestic visitor trips, 8 million international arrivals, and a total tourist receipts of about VND 650 trillion in 2023, coordination and support from the aviation industry is necessary. VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu suggested expanding international flight routes to Vietnam, improving operating capacity at Vietnam's airports; expanding and upgrading the infrastructure of the aviation industry, building an ecosystem of aviation - tourism; developing human resources for aviation and tourism; boosting the application of new technologies, coordinating in promotion activities...
Overview of the event (Photo: VHO)
During the discussion session, solutions on attracting international visitors, developing tourism products to meet the increasing demands of visitors, promoting international tourism and environmental protection have been put on the table for consideration.
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