High-level tourism meeting to be held

Ha Noi will host the 22nd Joint Meeting between the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Commission for East Asia Pacific and the UNWTO Commission for South Asia from May 10 to 12, said Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism yesterday in Ha Noi.
According to Mr. Pham Quang Hung, director of the Administration's International Co-operation Department, 26 country members and two associate ones in the region would attend the meeting as well as another UNWTO conference on tourism held in Ha Noi at the same time.
Hung said the meeting would discuss policies and solutions to boost regional tourism, create good conditions by addressing immigration procedures and making human resources available to the tourism industry.
It would also discuss work that needs to be carried out between the two committees in order to strengthen co-operation and improve tourism activities in the future, he added.
Hung said that Viet Nam would introduce and promote handicraft village tourism to the 300 participants as well as seek bilateral co-operation on tourism.
He added that Viet Nam would seek new co-operation with UNWTO under which the organisation would send experts to Viet Nam to share and exchange experience as well as look for potential localities for tourism such as Ba Be Lake, Thac Ba and Ha Giang.
Viet Nam has asked UNWTO to train and offer internships to Vietnamese tourism workers to work in its office in Spain.
The administration also announced that it would have VND40 billion (US$2.1million) for tourism promotion this year and another VND31 billion ($1.6million) for the national tourism programme.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, deputy director of the administration's tourism market department, said together with attending international fairs and open roadshows in Germany, Spain, Australia, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, Viet Nam will also develop caravan tours in regional areas.
Huong said they would advertise Vietnamese tourism in Japan with posters in the Tokyo tube and billboards in Osaka.
According to Mr. Vu The Binh, director of the administration's travel department, staff were working hard to help European tourists who are stranded in the country due to postponed flights because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
In the first quarter, Viet Nam received about 1.35 million international tourists, an increase of 36.2 per cent over the same term last year, according to the administration's data.