(TITC) – On 11th October, Greater Mekong Sub-Region Tourism Working Group had the 50th meeting in the framework of MTF 2022 hosted in Vietnam.
Mr. Ha Van Sieu opening the meeting. Photo TITC
Opening the meeting, Mr. Ha Van Sieu (Vice Chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism) emphasised that this is a regular meeting and is extremely important in the context that Mekong countries are boosting cooperation to reopen international tourism and gradually recover the tourism industry against severe impacts of the pandemic during the two last years.
He informed that the picture of tourism recovery in the sub-region is now increasingly bright. To overcome the challenges left by the pandemic, no single country could act alone. We should work together, have joint actions and efforts for shared objectives including each country's particular objectives.
The 50th Meeting of GMS TWG covered matters such as international tourism openning, Mekong Tourism Communications Recovery Plan implementation, tourism projects and iniatives funded by ADB and development partners, plan activities of partners.
Overview of meeting. Photo TITC
At the meeting, representative of MTCO brief on the 49th GMS TWG Meeting hosted in May 2022 by Lao PDR & status of follow up actions agreed in summary of proceedings. Each National Tourism Organization to give an update on progress of implementing tourism recovery initiatives and strategies focusing on 4 key areas: Update of country reopening after the COVID-19 (including policies, activities and progress); Government support programs for tourism businesses and public-private marketing efforts; Experiences, best practices, issues and challenges in tourism reopening; Propose initiatives that the GMS Member Countries can do together to accelerate the recovery, interm of technology, transport, re-starting face to face events, travel patterns & new markets, etc.
Vietnam has full opened tourism since 15 March 2022. Vietnam welcomed more than 1.8 million international visitor arrivals in 9 months of 2022. There are 86.8 million domestic visitor arrivals traveling in country. Tourism receipts gained VND 394.2 trillion. According to the newest World Economic Forum Report, Vietnam tourism ranked 52, up 8 levels to 2019.
Vietnam has diverse tourism products relating to sea and islands, nature, culture and cities, health care, discovery, golf... In the three years of 2019-2022, Vietnam tourism also continuously received prestigious international tourism awards at regional and international level. This is the recognition and appreciation of the world with efforts to restore and develop Vietnam tourism.
Regarding communication activities, GMS countries strengthen communication work to restore tourism, propose joint projects that GMS member countries can coordinate to promote connection and exchange after opening tourism.
Also at the meeting, many other contents were also updated such as tourism trends, activities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ASEAN-Japan Center and ASEAN-Korea.
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