CLMV countries to exhibit tourism projects in city

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and host Vietnam will exhibit tourism projects in HCMC during the tourism investment forum, one of the activities of the International Travel Expo 2011 in HCMC scheduled for September this year.
Along with the project exhibition, CLMV countries’ tourism ministers will update tourism development strategies to investors.
The high-ranking officials and investors will discuss investment policies, ways to link transport systems for tourism development of the four countries and good policies to woo investment for hospitality services.
Topics on tourism-entertainment complex development and the strong growth rate of investing in luxury resorts in the countries will all feature in the forum.
“The main theme of this year’s travel expo is four countries – one destination. In the exhibition we will focus on promoting our common tourism potential of the world heritage sites,” La Quoc Khanh, deputy head of the event’s organizing committee, said in a meeting to promote the Expo last Friday in HCMC.
It will take place from September 14 to 17 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7. The event will feature a tourism exhibition, buyers-and-sellers meetings, conferences and other promotions.
“We’ve extended the event to four days instead of three due to exhibitors’ requests. Hospitality players will have two days to meet with wholesale partners and two days to promote their products and services to the public,” Khanh said.
To date, the organizing committee has received registrations for 137/220 booths of the expo. Exhibitors come from 16 provinces and cities in the country, 12 big tourism companies and 11 foreign tourism promotion departments. Around 174 foreign buyers have registered to join the event.
Airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Philippines Airlines have put their names down to bring foreign tour operators and buyers to the event.
Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of the HCMC Tourism Association, said that previous travel expos brought business chances for entrepreneurs. “We’ve met good partners and found business opportunities via the events. We are encouraging our members to attend the Expo,” he said at the meeting.