(TITC) – On 11 April 2016, in Ha Noi, Director General of Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan had a meeting with the delegation of Tianjin Municipal Tourism Bureau (China) led by Director General Yang Shi Hao.
Tianjin is one of the most developed cities in the North of China with approximately 15 million inhabitants and GDP per capita reaching over USD 17,000. Tianjin receives attention from visitors due to its culture of Northern China, in harmony with Western ancient architecture. The city welcomed around 3.2 million international tourist arrivals and 171 million domestic trippers per year; and there were about 1 million Tianjinese citizens travelling abroad per year, of which Viet Nam received above 100,000 arrivals (accounting for one-third of the number of Tianjinese tourists to Southeast Asian destinations).
Mr. Yang Shi Hao informed that Tianjinese in particular and Chinese in general love sea and leisure tourism in Viet Nam, particularly Nha Trang and Da Nang. Especially, since charter flights from Tianjin to Nha Trang was launched in September 2015, the number of Chinese tourists to Nha Trang has been increasing significantly. In 2015, there were about 40,000 Tianjinese passengers to Viet Nam by charter flights. Besides, Tianjin has also become a transit hub for tourists from Beijing, Guangzhou to Viet Nam by charter flights.
Director General Nguyen Van Tuan suggested that beside Nha Trang and Da Nang, Viet Nam has many fascinate destinations namely Ha Long Bay, Son Doong Cave, Phu Quoc Island. Furthermore, the accommodations in Viet Nam of high quality could meet increasing demand of tourists. Viet Nam welcomed nearly 8 million international arrivals in 2015, of which the number of the Chinese reached 1.8 million arrivals; and around 2.5 million international tourists in the first 3 months of 2016, including more than 580,000 Chinese arrivals.
Director General Nguyen Van Tuan also supposed that Viet Nam would become a potential source market of Tianjin thanks to its population of over 90 million and the increasing number of high income travellers. Hence, Tianjin should further promotion efforts to attract Vietnameses.
He emphasized that the two sides should utilize the tourism potentials and advantages to further strengthen tourism cooperation. In the coming time, the two sides should focus on some issues as: facilitating tourists travelling; boosting tourism promotion through roadshows, travel marts; host famtrips, presstrips…
By the end of this year, VNAT planned to organize a famtrip for leading tourism enterprises and media in Tianjin to Phu Quoc Island with the aim of promoting Phu Quoc as well as Viet Nam’s image to Tianjinese citizens and all Chineses.
As scheduled, the Tianjin delegation worked in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City from 11 – 14 April.
Thanh Tam