Vietnam plans 22 tourism promotion programs in half year

Vietnam will organize 22 tourism promotion programs at home and abroad between now and March, 2010 to polish the Vietnam tourism image, Nguyen Van Tuan, head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said at a meeting with authorities and tourism firms of southern provinces in HCMC on August 21.
The tight agenda for a period of half a year includes 15 events in China, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, France and other countries. The remaining seven events at home include the Gong Festival, the Mekong-Japan Festival as well as activities to prepare for the National Tourism Year in 2010.
Apart from these events, the VNAT will also run publicity programs on BBC and in other international magazines, plus a repeated program on the Cable News Network (CNN) in the coming time.
VNAT said these busy programs were meant to woo international visitors back to the country at a time the hospitality industry has been hit hard by the global economic downturn.
“VNAT are kept very busy in the period with all promotion activities and efforts to improve tourism products. We are in a hurry to make better programs to woo more guests. Our agency will combine with travel firms to make survey trips before launching new products and new tours”. Tuan said.
Such survey trips will cover coastline attractions from Quang Ngai Province southwards to Binh Thuan Province in September, attractions in the Central Highlands, and other trips to the Mekong Delta region. Such survey trips are aimed at doing away with overlapping tours and products being offered by different localities.
“National and provincial agencies and travel firms will join hands in making new products and limiting undercutting as currently many localities are offering similar products for tourists,” Tuan said.
Apart from above events, important conferences will also take place this year, including those on development of river tourism and border-gate tourism.