Attracting more European visitors

      One of the top issues that drew much attention from participants at a seminar entitled “Skills to access European tourist markets” was how to promote Vietnamese tourist products and to attract more European tourists to Vietnam.
As the global economic recession has already hit all economic sectors, including tourism, the seminar that was held on May 25th in Hanoi by the Vietnamese Tourism General Department and has been viewed as a tonic for the sick tourism sector.
In fact, Vietnamese tourism has so far done too little in European markets which have a high potential to attract tourists. As a result, the number of European tourists among tourists from other markets to Vietnam is still quite modest.
At the seminar, participants pointed to a number of limitations and weaknesses of Vietnam’s tourism, such as a shortage of luxury hotel services, limited tourist promotion in the markets and lack of direct air routes between Vietnam and European countries.
Officials and businesses agreed that tourist promotion should be enhanced via mass media and the internet, in the short term, and the tourism sector should draw up an appropriate strategy to draw European tourists through tourist promotion campaigns in these markets in the long term.